Julian Dawson

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Julian Dawson, 2002

Julian Dawson (born July 4, 1954 in London ), resident in Somerset , England, is a British singer-songwriter , guitarist and harmonica player . He works as a solo artist as well as a band or project member in Europe, especially in Great Britain and Germany as well as in the USA. He also works as a translator and author .

biography

Dawson, bald since his mid- twenties , grew up as one of seven brothers in London , later in Kent . He studied fine arts and art print techniques at Exeter Art College . As a member of the 'Art School Band' and through solo appearances, he discovered early on that musical forms of expression attracted him more than painting. He began as a musician in several band projects on numerous small tours in Great Britain and especially in Germany to earn his living, primarily with his own song material.

Dawson played in Iain Matthews ' band Plainsong for a number of years . He worked in the Cologne recording studio of the art rock band Can , among other things on the project 'The Flood' with Rosko Gee ( Traffic ) and Jaki Liebezeit (Can). Dawson's friendship with the BAP front man Wolfgang Niedecken led to several appearances in the band's opening act . Julian Dawson also produced Niedecken's album "Zosamme alt" in 2013, which was recorded in Woodstock and mastered in New York . He also played with musicians and formations such as Al Stewart , Fairport Convention , Toots Thielemans , Steuart Smith , Lucinda Williams , Richard Thompson and Volkwin Müller .

At the beginning of the 1990s, his focus was increasingly on the US market. He worked intensively in Austin , Texas, and New York . Dawson recorded two CDs in Nashville , which were produced by Garry Tallent , bassist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band , and which included musicians such as Vince Gill , Duane Eddy , Bill Payne and Steve Forbert . The work has secured him a solid and loyal audience in the USA to this day.

In 1994 he played with English rock pianist Nicky Hopkins, shortly before his death, the piece You're Listening Now , which appeared on Dawson's album Travel On the following year . He later wrote a biography about Hopkins. Further productions followed by the end of the decade, leading to appearances at the well-known Tønder Festival in Denmark and the Newport Folk Festival in the USA. The years 2001/2002 then brought an intensive collaboration with the Byrds musician Gene Parsons in the form of a CD, Hillbilly Zen , and a subsequent promotional tour in the USA and Europe.

Dawson delivered almost a concept album on the subject of marriage & relationships in 2004, Bedroom Suite , on which his then 19-year-old daughter can be heard in a duet with him. In 2006 Dawson produced Nothing Like a Dame , the first album, which consisted entirely of cover versions , all of which were originally sung or written by women. Appropriately, Dawson completed the promotional tour in a tartan skirt . In 2008 he realized the CD Deep Rain, a long-planned production with soul legend Dan Penn . In 2010 the recording of a tour followed, which was published as a double CD / DVD with the title Live . A box set of 3 Life and Soul - A Retrospective 1982 - 1995 Vol1. was released in 2013, a Vol2. in 2018. The 23rd album Living Good from 2015 was again recorded with Dan Penn in Nashville.

Dawson is fluent in German and French. In 2016 he will celebrate his 40th stage anniversary.

style

Dawson himself describes the style of his music as a mixture of pop, folk, blues and country. Critics discover similarities between his titles and those of the American band Wilco or the Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith . Although highly valued by fellow musicians, he has not yet made his big commercial breakthrough. In autumn 1991 his single How Can I Sleep without You reached number 53 in the German charts, the highest ranking of his publications to date.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
How Can I Sleep without You?
  DE 53 08/12/1991 (12 weeks)

In addition to his own productions, Dawson always finds time to take part in the publications of many colleagues, including Gerry Rafferty , Lydie Auvray , Del Amitri , Clem Clempson , The Roches , Colin Wilkie , Dan Penn and Achim Amme . His own publications were released by various record companies, five of them by BMG alone . Below is a list of our own recordings:

  • Cheap Pop for Poor People (MusicCassette, private issue) 1981
  • Let Out the Pig 1982
  • As Real as Disneyland 1987
  • Luckiest Man in the Western World 1988
  • Live on the Radio 1990
  • Fragile as China 1991
  • June Honeymoon - Live 1992
  • Headlines 1993
  • How Human Hearts Behave - Collection 1984-1994 1994
  • Travel on 1995
  • Steal That Beat - The Lost Tapes (Rerelease of "Let Out The Pig") 1996
  • Songs from the Red Couch - Live (with Iain Matthews) 1996
  • Move over Darling 1997
  • Under the Sun 1999
  • Cologne Again Or - Live 2001
  • Flood Damage - Live (with Iain Matthews) 2002
  • Hillbilly Zen 2002
  • Bedroom Suite 2004
  • Nothing Like a Dame 2006
  • Deep Rain (with Dan Penn) 2008
  • Live 2010
  • Life and Soul - A Retrospective 1982 - 1995 Vol.1 2013
  • Living Good (with Dan Penn) 2015
  • Life and Soul - A Retrospective 1997 - 2017 Vol.2 2018

bibliography

Dawson wrote a book about the life of the British musician Nicky Hopkins, which was originally published in English and which he worked on for over ten years. It was a coincidence that the German translation, which was greatly shortened by the publisher, went on sale earlier than the English version in the UK and the USA.

  • Julian Dawson: Nicky Hopkins. A rock legend. translated by Kristian Lutze; Edition Elke Heidenreich at C. Bertelsmann , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-58001-1
  • Julian Dawson: And on Piano ... Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock's Greatest Session Man . Plus One Press (USA), 1st edition (April 1, 2011), ISBN 9780984436224 ; Desert Hearts (UK), 1st edition (May 2011), ISBN 9781898948124

At the request of the British musician Spencer Davis , who claims to have read the work on Nicky Hopkins in just two days, Dawson also wrote his biography, which will be published in 2019.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review on SWR
  2. ^ Julian Dawson: Nicky Hopkins. A rock legend. translated by Kristian Lutze; Edition Elke Heidenreich at C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-58001-1
  3. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: The world's most polite monster . Article on Julian Dawson's book Nicky Hopkins - A Rock Legend
  4. ^ Julian Dawson - official website
  5. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Julian Dawson - musician career even without the big breakthrough
  6. ↑ Hit record, German chart singles on CD-ROM, Taurus Press
  7. ↑ Julian Dawson Website - Latest News March 2019
personal data
SURNAME Dawson, Julian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British musician and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH London