Lucky Hand [LP]

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. Lucky Hand is Steve Dawson's first record of instrumental music since Rattlesnake Cage came out in 2014 and represents a high point of more than two decades of musical searching. Comprised of 10 instrumental tracks of solo, duo and full-bodied string works, Dawson has never released music as sweeping, dynamic and visually suggestive as this. Five of Lucky Hand's tracks feature his old partner Jesse Zubot's innovative string arrangements based on melodies suggested by Dawson's guitar. With Peggy Lee (cello), Jesse and his brother Josh Zubot (violins) and John Kastle (viola) - contributing to the session, the results are moody and intense, full of imagery and suggestion. As a producer and sideman, Steve spends a lot of his time in the studio capturing the essence of other top names in roots music, but it's when he turns his hand to composing and playing his own original material that he really shines. Recorded live off the floor, with several microphones used to capture the guitar and orchestration, this recording represents the perfect intersection of the primitive and the modern that has fascinated Dawson for so long.