Gunning gets personal
Storyteller's songs more universal, lyrics more emotional
By ANDREA NEMETZ Entertainment Reporter
Dave Gunning is getting personal on his upcoming album House For Sale.
"The songs are more universal than the songs on Two-Bit World," explains the Pictou County singer-songwriter.
"They're still story songs, but they're less third person. It's more putting themselves in the shoes of the person, more from an emotional place."
The album isn't expected till early July, but Gunning will be previewing the songs in a series of six Nova Scotia shows beginning tonight at 8 p.m. at the Astor Theatre in Liverpool.
Last month he did a show in Fredericton that drew over 400 people, a show in Charlottetown that was sold out for weeks in advance and a Moncton concert.
""I've played some of these theatres as one-offs, but I've never done nine shows as a tour before. I was really nervous. But the band is great and the new material is going over well,"" he says modestly, noting a show last month in Charlottetown was sold out with a waiting list.
The band includes Ed Woodsworth on stand-up bass, Jamie Robinson on guitar and Adam Dowling on drums.
"The boys are amazing players and we have a lot of fun. The songs feel tight."
Steven Bowers, a frequent collaborator who Gunning describes as a "great songwriter," is a special guest.
The shows will be a mixture of new tunes and songs from Two Bit World, which won the 2005 ECMA for folk album of the year, as well as lots of the easy-going singer's trademark stories. Saltwater Hearts, a tearjerker that is one of his most frequently requested tunes, is likely to make the set list too.
Gunning wrote the new album's title track, House For Sale, after visiting Red Rock, Ont. with Robinson.
"The show was cancelled because of a meeting in the town hall to discuss the proposed mill closure. We ended up playing in someone's basement that night, but we had the afternoon off and drove through Red Rock and almost every house had a "for sale" sign because people were getting ready for the mill to close."
The signs made the 35-year-old balladeer think of Canso, where he will play at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival for the fifth time this summer, as well as small communities in Newfoundland.
A highlight of the upcoming album for Gunning was co-writing Take A Look At These Hard Working Hands with Ron Hynes of Sonny's Dream fame. It's a song about looking at the weathered hands of a man and wondering what the man did to earn the life scars.
"Ron's one of my favourite writers in the world. I hope we'll do lots more writing together."
The father of Jud, three, and Will, who turned one in January, also wrote his first country song, with an assist from long-time friend George Canyon.
Entitled Cowboy's Dream, it was written while they were rehearsing for their cross-country Christmas tour in 2005.
"George loves to be home with his wife and kids and the song is about a rodeo rider who made it to the top and just wants to settle down," says Gunning, noting he's ridden a few horses, but hasn't done any roping.
Gunning has toured frequently with Canyon, the runner-up in the Nashville Star televised country music contest in 2004, and opened for the sold-out INXS show at Halifax Metro Centre in May 2006, which featured another Pictou County native and long-time friend, J.D. Fortune.
From now till Christmas, Gunning will be going full tilt with a packed schedule of folk festivals in the summer, a quick trip to New England in September and a U.K. trip in November.
His only previous European date was the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 2003, which he calls a great experience . . . even if he didn't get to the Lego Museum.
And the new father is discovering an upside to touring.
"I generally get more sleep on the road than at home, the kids get up really early. But it's worth it. I'm tired, but happy."
( anemetz@herald.ca)
