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Today I listened to Lift the new album from Canadian singer-songwriter Dave Gunning. I first listened to Gunning’s music a few years ago, I listened to his 2012 album No More Pennies. Dave’s music fits in that niche of folksinger’s who write great story songs. Guys like fellow Canadians James Keelaghan and Gordon Lightfoot….from the Toronto Star…

Gunning is the next big thing in the True North of Song, an artist as compelling, as assured and attentive to every nuance of the writing process, as Lightfoot, Cockburn and Stan Rogers before him.”

Dave Gunning’s Career

The recording career of rootsy East Coast singer/songwriter Dave Gunning now spans 21years and 10 earlier albums.

Dave Gunning’s Award‘s

two Canadian Folk Music Awards and eight East Coast Music Awards,

2012 Juno Award nomination for his acclaimed album … a tribute to John Allan Cameron.

He was the winner of the Indie International Song Contest (for his song, “Hard Workin’ Hands,” co-written with Ron Hynes) and has been a finalist in other major international songwriting contests.

About Lift

Lift is Gunning’s 11 th album and was leased on his own imprint Wee House of Music . All 13 tunes are Gunning originals ,though 9 of the songs were co-written by a variety of talented friends/peers. The co-writers list includes fellow East Coasters Matt Andersen, Catherine MacLellan, and Thom Swift, plus American Sally Spring.

Gunning also recruited a list of musicians to help on the album. The list include:

• Jamie Robinson –  mandolin on track 10, hammertone^] on track 5, acoustic guitar on track 9, electric guitar on track 6
• Asa Brosius –  pedal steel
• Darren McMullen –  mandolin, mandola and bouzouki
• JP Cormier –  fiddle, banjo on track 2, 3, 7
• Thom Swift –  resonator guitar on track 3
• Sara DeLong Gunning –  harmony vocals on track 10
• Sing It Louder Choir – John Parker, Julie Gunning, and Sara DeLong Gunning

I particularly liked the pedal steel from Asa Brosius!

Dave writes this about Lift .……

Gunning acknowledges that “this album has more personal and introspective songs than my past recordings. I do still love songs that are about things and tell a real story, like the songs of Stan Rogers. They inspire me.”

A fine example of that here is “I Robbed The Co. Store,” which tells the true story of a group of British settlers in Nova Scotia in the 1770s forced to steal from a storehouse reserved for troops just so they could feed their families. A more contemporary song with a Pictou County setting is “They Don’t Do That No More.” “That one is inspired by the fight we have here against a pulp mill that is just an environmental disaster,” explains Gunning. The mournful sound of the pedal steel punctuates his lament that “there’s poison on the harbour floor.” It’s a song one of Dave’s key inspirations, the late folk great Pete Seeger, would have been proud to call his own. Read More

So Check Out Dave’s Music!

Here’s Dave performing “Sing It Louder” from Lift – Dave says this about the song….

The Video

 “Sing It Louder,” is actually a tribute to Seeger. “My goal was to write a song you could imagine him singing,” says Gunning. “As folk singers we should all aspire to carry the torch of Pete Seeger and his message of social justice.”

I do believe, Pete would be proud!

Links

Artist’s Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Amazon

About Dave Gunning

Dave Gunning is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Gunning credits the first live concert he ever observed, a 1981 double bill of John Allan Cameron and Stan Rogers, to be a major driving force in shaping the direction his life would take as a musician. That show changed my life. Wikipedia

Born: Pictou County, Canada

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