PREVIEW
ZUBOT AND DAWSON
Saturday, November 9
Nickelodeon Music Club
It’s a little ironic that violin and mandolin player Jesse Zubot is looking forward to going on a cross-country tour to get away from the stress that permeates his life at home in Vancouver. In a year when Zubot and musical partner Steve Dawson played under the moniker Zubot and Dawson at folk, jazz and guitar festivals in Vancouver, Edmonton, Monterey, New York and Colorado, and then played more gigs with Great Uncles of the Revolution at events like the Montreal Jazz Festival, one imagines that life on the road might be just a touch busier than kicking back at home.
But home isn’t such a quiet place, either, not when there's relations with a new record label, True North Records, to be worked out. And then they have to deal with the many demands of their new release, Chicken Scratch, the duo’s third album and the follow-up to 2000’s Tractor Parts. Finally, there are favours to be repaid to the likes of Kelly Joe Phelps, who contributed slide guitar licks to Chicken Scratch – in return, Zubot and Dawson will be playing on his upcoming album. Recently, the pair have also been in the studio with Danny Mack and John Reischman.
"(We have) a lot of recording sessions – we’re starting to produce other people, which I enjoy. Then there’s always a gig with other people, which is fun, but there gets to be so much going on that I start to stress out," says Zubot, who is preparing to tour with Dawson to the East Coast, playing shows in every major centre between Vancouver and Halifax.
The pair have recently beefed up their lineup with drummer and percussionist Elliot Polsky and acoustic stand-up bassist, Andrew Downing. Zubot says the changes are permanent, part of a plan to re-create the sound that producer Lee Townsend (who also works with Bill Frisell) helped them develop in the studio while recording the new record. Zubot says the group's new sound may not be hugely noticeable, though.
"It’s pretty subtle – a little massaging here and there and, before you know it, it sounds different. But not drastic, not heavy metal or anything. Just little things here and there that an average person wouldn’t be able to notice, really. Basic atmospheric difference."
This will be the first time that Zubot and Dawson have had tour support from a record label and while driving across the tundra and playing cellphone tag with journalists once held its charms, Zubot is itching to tour, even if extra players mean extra gear to haul.
"Playing live music is the thrill. It’s always exciting to make it better, to stretch." |
