May 10, 2007

Gunning embraces inner cowboy Dave Gunning writes his first country song

DEAN LISK - HFX Daily News

Dave Gunning has plucked his guitar to a new musical genre - the cowboy tale.

"That's my first country song," he says about Cowboy's Dream, a co-write with best buddy and fellow Pictou County boy George Canyon.

"We were out rehearsing for his Christmas tour, and were at his house, when he told me he wanted to do a whole recording of country songs. He asked me if I had written anything. I hadn't, but I went back to the Best Western and started writing it."

The story of a cowboy, who hates being on the circuit and wants to get back home to his family, is one of the new songs Gunning will be performing at Casino Nova Scotia tonight.

The show is part of a Maritime tour the East Coast Music Award winner is doing to support his soon to be released fourth studio album, House for Sale.

"We are just in the final mixing and mastering - the final stage," Gunning said about the album. "We could have rushed and had it out in time for the tour, but we didn't want to do that. We'd have to live with it forever."

One of the reasons for his extra care is that this is the follow-up to his very successful Two Bit World, which received rave reviews and took home the ECMA for folk recording of the year in 2005.

"We knew we had to beat it. We couldn't but something out that was as good or worse. We had to put something out that was better. It took a while to do this record, but I think it was worthwhile. I feel it is a stronger record."

He said the writing has changed since Two Bit World, something he attributes to being older and a little more experienced.

"There were a lot of story songs on that record, and there are a lot of story songs on this record, but it is less from the third person, they are more written from an emotional point of view. Being in the shoes, sort of, of the characters in these songs, and going through those circumstances."

This, he adds, makes the songs more universal, even though they are still rooted in experiences. Hard Working Hands is an example of this.

Small-town folk

Written by Gunning and Ron Hynes, it describes many of the characters you would see in any small town; like old men hanging out at the coffee shops and spending time at the Legions telling stories.

"You can look at their hands, and they're great big hands on them that are really weathered. You know that they have lived," Gunning said.

"I was nervous," he admits about working with Hynes, a multiple ECMA winner. "It took me a while to talk to him about writing together. But, one night in a bar in Halifax, he threw that song title at me. I went home and spent time with it, and we got together and finished the song."

The CD's title track, House for Sale is another example of a story song which transcends universal feelings. Gunning wrote it with longtime collaborator Jamie Rob-inson - who also produced the CD - on a trip through Northern Ontario.

The duo was on its way to the mill town of Red Rock when word came their show in the community was cancelled. They arrived in the community to find the mill had closed, and everyone was at a meeting to decide what to do.

"There was an awkward feeling in the town," Gunning said. "We went down into the village and we saw For Sale signs everywhere. It registered with us that this was a pretty significant thing happening.

"It was easy to relate to it because we in Atlantic Canada know about those harbour towns and little fishing communities that are struggling."