Julian Dawson is a British singer–songwriter

Singer–songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

, guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 and author. His style has been compared to Wilco

Wilco

Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...

 and Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith

Ronald Eldon "Ron" Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario, currently based in Toronto. He started his own band when he was fourteen years old, and released the first recordings of his own material seven years later, in 1985...

. He is fluent in German and French. Outside his solo work, acts he has recorded with (as singer or harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 player) include Gerry Rafferty

Gerry Rafferty

Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...

, Glenn Tilbrook

Glenn Tilbrook

Glenn Martin Tilbrook is the lead singer and guitarist of the English band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid 1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade's end. He generally wrote the melody for Squeeze, while his writing partner, Chris Difford, wrote the lyrics...

, Del Amitri

Del Amitri

Del Amitri were a Scottish pop-rock guitar band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. The band grew out of Justin Currie's Jordanhill College School band and came together after teenager Currie placed an advertisement in the window of a music store asking for people who could play to contact him...

, Dan Penn

Dan Penn

Dan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...

, Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews is an English musician and songwriter. He was born Iain Matthew McDonald, in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He was known in the 1960s first as Ian McDonald, then as the 1960s progressed, as Ian Matthews...

 and his band Plainsong (band)

Plainsong (band)

Plainsong was originally a British country rock/folk rock band, formed in early 1972 by Ian Matthews, formerly of Fairport Convention; Andy Roberts, previously of The Liverpool Scene; Dave Richards; and Bob Ronga...

, Richard Thompson and Benny Hill

Benny Hill

Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...

. He also worked with German krautrock

Krautrock

Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...

ers Can

Can (band)

Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...

, and BAP

Bap (German band)

Bap is a German rock group. With ten albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, Bap is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country....

.

Biography

He attended two Catholic boarding schools for nine years and Art College for three years, before deciding to take up music full time and playing his first professional jobs for the US army in Germany. After a return to London, he learned his craft on the road all over Europe and the UK with various band line-ups, playing his own songs from day one and eventually landing his first record deal.

One pub-rock influenced LP was followed by two albums for Polydor, both recorded at the legendary Can Studio near Cologne with Jaki Liebezeit

Jaki Liebezeit

Jaki Liebezeit is a drummer probably best known as a founding member of Can who has been called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral"....

 and guests Richard Thompson and Toots Thielemans

Toots Thielemans

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...

. ‘As Real As Disneyland’ garnered album-of-month status and sold well in the German-speaking territories, setting a pattern of Dawson having more success abroad than at home that has remained a feature of his career so far.

In the early nineties Julian turned his attentions to the USA, making two albums in Nashville with E Street Band

E Street Band

The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...

 bass-player Garry Tallent

Garry Tallent

Garry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....

 producing and a host of local guests, including Vince Gill

Vince Gill

Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...

, Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...

, Bill Payne

Bill Payne

Bill Payne is a founding member of American rock band Little Feat. He is considered by many other piano rock musicians, including Elton John, to be one of the finest American piano rock and blues music artists...

 and Steve Forbert

Steve Forbert

Steve Forbert is an American pop music singer-songwriter. He is best known for his song "Romeo's Tune", which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1980....

. ‘Fragile As China’ charted in Germany and helped him build a radio presence and a solid following in the USA, where he still tours at least once a year.

Visits to the States, and Nashville and Austin in particular, became a regular part of his life, leading to further recordings (five in all for BMG

BMG

Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...

) and co-writes and collaborations with artists such as Dan Penn

Dan Penn

Dan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...

, Willie Nile

Willie Nile

Willie Nile is an American singer-songwriter. In 1980 Nile released his self-titled debut album which according to one critic remains “one of the most thrilling post-Byrds folk-rock albums of all time”...

, Nicky Hopkins

Nicky Hopkins

Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....

, Jules Shear

Jules Shear

Jules Mark Shear is a US singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Pittsburgh in 1952. Although he has had only one minor hit as a performer , he has recorded almost 20 albums to date...

 and Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...

, with whom he also recorded a memorable duet version of ‘How Can I Sleep Without You’.

For several years he kept together a live band, featuring guitarist Steuart Smith

Steuart Smith

Steuart Smith is a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, writer and producer currently working with American rock band the Eagles. Smith is from Arlington, VA.]].-Current work:...

 (now with the Eagles). More albums followed both as a member of Plainsong

Plainsong

Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...

 with Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews is an English musician and songwriter. He was born Iain Matthew McDonald, in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He was known in the 1960s first as Ian McDonald, then as the 1960s progressed, as Ian Matthews...

 and solo including ‘Move Over Darling’, with Richard Thompson, Dan Penn

Dan Penn

Dan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...

 and the Roches

The Roches

The Roches are a female vocal group of three songwriting Irish-American sisters from Park Ridge, New Jersey, known for their "unusual" and "rich" harmonies, quirky lyrics, and casually comedic stage performances.The Roches have been active as performers and recording artists since the mid-1970s,...

, ‘Under The Sun’ with Soft Boys Kimberley Rew and Andy Metcalfe and 2002’s ‘Hillbilly Zen’ with ex-Byrd Gene Parsons

Gene Parsons

Gene Victor Parsons is an American drummer, banjo player, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and innovative engineer, best known for his work with The Byrds from 1968 to 1972. Parsons has also released solo albums and played in bands including Nashville West, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Parsons Green...

.

Dawson has performed at festivals such as Newport (USA), Cambridge, Cropredy and Glastonbury in England, on tour with Plainsong, Al Stewart

Al Stewart

Al Stewart is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.He is...

, Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

 and others, on TV’s ‘Later With Jools Holland

Later with Jools Holland

Later... with Jools Holland is a contemporary British music television show hosted by Jools Holland. A spin-off of The Late Show, it has been running in short series since 1992 and is a part of BBC Two's late-night line-up, usually at around 11pm to 12 midnight...

’ (with the Richard Thompson Band) or the Europe-wide ‘Rockpalast’ with his own.

In 1996 he produced country legend Charlie Louvin

Charlie Louvin

Charles Elzer Loudermilk , known professionally as Charlie Louvin, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955.-Biography:Born in Henagar, Alabama, Louvin was one of 7 children...

’s comeback album ‘The Longest Train’ and later appeared with him at the BBC Proms. Julian's 2008 CD ‘Deep Rain’, produced in Nashville by soul legend Dan Penn

Dan Penn

Dan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...

, helped to introduce him to a wider audience and was followed by a band tour, preserved on the double CD/DVD 'Live', released in 2010. He has been producing a first solo album for Beverley Martyn

Beverley Martyn

Beverley Martyn is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist.While still a student, she was picked to front The Levee Breakers, a jug band who played the folk circuit in South East England...

.

2010 also saw the first publication of his biography of Nicky Hopkins

Nicky Hopkins

Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....

 by Random House, Germany. The English language book follows in spring 2011, via Desert Hearts in the UK (in hardback) and Backstage Books/Plus One Press in N. America (in paperback). First reviews have been extremely positive (4 stars from Uncut Magazine).

Discography

• 1982 Let Out The Pig
• 1987 As Real As Disneyland
• 1989 Luckiest Man In The Western World
• 1990 Live On The Radio
• 1991 Fragile As China
• 1992 June Honeymoon - Live
• 1993 Headlines
• 1994 How Human Hearts Behave - Collection 1984-1994
• 1995 Travel On
• 1996 Steal That Beat -The Lost Tapes (Re-release of "Let Out The Pig")
• 1996 Songs From The Red Couch - Live (with Iain Matthews)
• 1997 Move Over Darling
• 1999 Under The Sun
• 2001 Cologne Again Or - Live
• 2002 Flood Damage - Live (with Iain Matthews
  Iain Matthews
  Iain Matthews is an English musician and songwriter. He was born Iain Matthew McDonald, in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He was known in the 1960s first as Ian McDonald, then as the 1960s progressed, as Ian Matthews...
  
  )
• 2002 Hillbilly Zen
• 2004 Bedroom Suite
• 2006 Nothing Like A Dame
• 2008 Deep Rain
• 2010 Live (Double CD & DVD)

External links

• Julian Dawson's official website