October 12, 2007
Gunning blasts a great show at the Trailside
TODD MACLEAN
The Guardian
Dave Gunning has been bringing his gift of sincere songwriting and excellent musicianship to audiences throughout the East Coast, Canada and internationally for about a decade now.
On the brink of releasing his sixth album and riding the tailwind of a slew of awards, nominations and critical acclaim he has garnered to date, Gunning made his way to the Trailside Café in Mount Stewart last Friday night, just one week before embarking on a fall tour that will take him all through Ontario, to the UK and back home before Christmas.
And after I’d had one exquisite Trailside maple-glazed salmon dinner, complete with luscious harvest vegetables and a scrumptious raspberry ice cream crepe for dessert (whoops, I’m stepping into Bob Gray territory there, oh, let me
go to Eric MacEwen here, too: “A speckle o’ dessert and a cup o’ tea later, the evening’s poised to get even greater . . . ”), I then had the pleasure of taking in one simply fabulous show by this Pictou, N.S., native.
And, as I had heard a great deal about this fellow, from both the press and people who have seen him or talked to him in person, I’m not gonna’ lie here — this dude had a lot to live up to.
However, talking to him for about 15 engaging minutes before he stepped on stage and then experiencing the emotional gamut of his music for the rest of the night, I realized immediately that he is probably one of the kindest guys in East Coast music and that he is, indeed, an all-acclaim-deserving artist of tremendous talent.
As several full, lightly strummed acoustic chords rang out to the packed Trailside audience, Gunning began his night with the first cut off his new record: These Roads (were made to take me home.)
Smiling, well-fed music lovers gazed up, their faces aglow in candlelight, all seemingly not wanting to be anywhere else on Earth but there in his presence for a warm October night’s worth of stories and song in a little village café by the Hillsborough River.
Gunning’s musicality shone in the same way right from the first to the end of the show — always innovative guitar chording to accompany a voice that stood out like a finely-tuned old piano, perfect in pitch, delicate and weathered when called for, but strong and pure, refined in its years of melody flowing through it.
He continued on the evening with more songs from his new album, including House for Sale (the title track of the new CD), Cowboy’s Dream (which was
just released to radio this past Tuesday), Colleen Malone and Hard Workin’ Hands.
Intertwined throughout the night were many entertaining stories that served as introductions to his tunes, and this is quite obviously a staple for any Gunning show.
Here’s an example. The last tune mentioned, Hard Workin’ Hands, was written in collaboration with Ron Hynes. Hynes had been mentioning to Gunning for a while that they needed to write a song together, and then last year at a pub in Halifax, Hynes wrote “Take a look at these hard workin’ hands” on a napkin and shoved it at Gunning, saying, “Who is this guy? Write a song about him.”
The song now occupies the sixth track on his album. (And I would be one surprised man if the tune didn’t make Ron Hynes damn proud.)
The second half of the show also brought with it the best Stompin’ Tom Connors impersonation I’ve ever heard as Gunning told the tale about having the pleasure of playing bass with Connors several years back (my favourite was the detail about how it is actually written in the contract that you have to stay up drinking with Tom after the show until at least 4:30 a.m.) and then performed an absolute bang-on version of Gumboot Cloggeroo.
A lot of laughs and a lot of heartening tales brought to life with great melody and emotion by a guy who works his way into your heart in a pretty direct way and never lets up the whole night
long — this, I think, upon first impression at least, is a Gunning show in a nutshell.
The next time he makes it back to Prince Edward Island, which won’t be until next year by the look of his schedule, if you’re a fan of the folk-storytelling-song genre I would suggest you take him in.
