Steve Dawson — “Small Town Talk”
Americana Highways presents this video premiere of Steve Dawson’s version of Bobby Charles’ song “Small Town Talk,” from his album Eyes Closed Dreaming.
Musicians on this video of “Small Town Talk” are Steve Dawson on guitars and vocals; Joachim Cooder on drums; Jeremy Holmes on bass; Darryl Havers on organ and piano; Krystal Dos Santos on vocals; Liam MacDonald on percussion; Jerry Cook on baritone sax; Dominic Conway on tenor sax; and Malcolm Aitken on trumpet.
The video was shot by Collide Entertainment. Music for the video was recorded by Sheldon Zaharko; mixed by Steve Dawson and recorded at Hipposonic Studio in Vancouver. The band dives right into the melodious arrangement with horns and an easy groove and then it rockets with some slide guitar solos, with the warning “don’t believe what you hear, and half of what you see.” The video is straight up cool footage of the band in a spacious studio setting, and Joachim Cooder’s signature, eclectic groove style grounds the rhythms in a delicious fashion.
That’s a song off one of my favorite albums of all time, the self-titled Bobby Charles record. His version is super loose and funky, and I just wanted to play with the feel a bit, give it a different twist, add some horns and a few layers, and then just let it rip with some slide guitar over top. It’s really hard to justify covering songs that already seem perfect, but this one felt OK for some reason – like we found a cool place for it to live for a few minutes. This live version was shot in Vancouver a couple months ago and features the band I’ve been playing with live – Joachim Cooder, Jeremy Holmes, and Darryl Havers. Then I wrangled the horn players who played it on the album, which was a lot of fun. That’s Jerry Cook on baritone sax, Dominic Conway on Tenor and Malcolm Aiken on trumpet. — Steve Dawson