Dedications & Dreams by Dusk

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THE NEW RELEASE

"Dedications & Dreams" is poised to surpass the successes of Dusk's debut album. Whereas his debut CD includes 14 excellent guest musicians in an engaging mix of styles that spotlight Dusk's upbeat humor, his new disc features no fewer than 20 supporting musicians in an even broader range of styles and a colorful palette of moods.

"Dedications & Dreams" also contains a well-produced music video of his song "The Sunlight of Your Smile," and the album runs 12 minutes longer than its predecessor, offering one full hour of memorable entertainment.

The new album's infectious fun on the songs "Good Biscuit, Bad Biscuit" "Sleep with Her" "Tele(phony)" and especially "Alltel Sucks!" is rounded out by the exquisitely poetic "Quicksilver Daydreams of Maria," the soulfully moving "Indian Wars," and the gallantly romantic "When Winter Storms." Other songs therein evoke a strong sense of yesteryear (Coming Back to You), spiritual earnestness (Entelechy), wry reflection (Christopher's Raga), and marriage between the everyday and the erudite (Day Done Done).

Instrumentation on the album is as creative as it is varied. Dusk and keyboardist Tom McMillan personally hauled Tom's Hammond B3 organ and Leslie cabinet into Sundisc Recording Studio in Flagstaff (the CD was recorded on twin Yamaha AW4416s in Arizona and Atlanta studios) for inclusion on five of the twelve songs. Other interesting instruments used on the album include Chorded Zither, Accordion, cross harp Harmonica, Bodhran, Clarinet, Native American Flute, alto and soprano Saxophones, Euphonium, synth Guitar, Trumpet, and a fretless 5-string hollowbodied Bass. These are joined by a complement of more typical Americana instrumentation by way of acoustic guitars, mandolin, drums, percussion, fretted basses (all splendidly played by Rich Neville, 10-year bassist with the classic rock band POCO), keyboards, and pedal steel guitar.

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ARTIST'S BIO

Dusk has had a remarkable number of unusual experiences in his atypical life, and he brings all of them to bear on his musical art. He seemed destined from birth for extraordinary adventure, and at age 3, he won a major baby pageant and was scheduled for all-expenses-paid screen testing in Hollywood.

However, family tragedy soon placed him, instead, in a South Carolina orphanage where he was raised with 350 other children to age 18.

The strange new life (and the strangers there) eventually became his new home (and closeknit family), and Dusk excelled in sports, academics and music. He earned a varsity letter jacket and many high school superlatives, including Valedictorian, and he gave every spare minute possible to the rhythm & blues bands he formed from age 12 onward.

After graduation, Dusk went to Furman University on scholarship, and there he joined both the oldest national music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha and a jazz/rock fusion band that ignited his creative fires further.

As a young adult, Dusk made a two-year exploratory trip across America and wrote a detailed account of it in a weekly feature series for the nation's fastest growing daily newspaper. At journey's end, he settled in Southern California for five years, and for most of that time, he raised Percheron draft horses and lived next door to actor John Travolta.

In California, Dusk also wrote the award-winning book "Sunburst: A People, A Path, A Purpose" under contract with publisher Harcourt Brace, and a photo of him disking fields with a team of Percheron horses was used on the packaging of dozens of nationally distributed natural food products.

Through his ongoing devotion to music (the focus having shifted to troubadour-style songwriting), he befriended songwriting greats Townes Van Zandt, Billy Joe Shaver, and especially Mickey Newbury, who served as a role model and mentor.

When Dusk married and began his own family, he opted to teach his children at home through high school while he simultaneously earned a degree by independent study through Western Illinois University. He and his family lived for three years of this period in a 22' Sioux tipi in which his son was born.

In 1995, Dusk designed and built a unique, passive solar home in the shape of a Gothic cathedral, supported by massive curved wooden beams and paneled throughout with natural V-groove pine.

Photos of many of these adventures (and more) are included in the CD booklets of the two albums and CD single. Please visit duskweaver.com for more details.

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THE WRAP-UP

The overall experience of "Dedications & Dreams" is akin to touring a brightly-lit cultural cyclorama, for it is surely a multimedia stage production, one so natural that it begs the question why more roots artists have not already emulated Dusk's approach. Here, Dusk the Southern Storyteller shines with the well-placed sound effect, the soliloquy, the impromptu aside, the theatrical pause, the call and response of protagonist and chorus, as he directs segue of one element into another.

But make no mistake about it: Music is paramount here, and Dusk's fine singing voice unites all the elements into a thoroughly enjoyable and cohesive presentation that is at once both personal and universal.

When you've heard "Dedications & Dreams" start to finish, you will likely feel that you have experienced a shared event, a happening, rather than some string of interesting-but-isolated songs, one after the other. This album may well be seen as a work of art; it is obviously a well rendered labor of love; and it is clearly given to us by one very dedicated dreamer.

A recommendation: Because the CD was recorded, mixed, and mastered for optimum sound quality, and because its varied music and involved lyrics deserve undivided attention, it is suggested that you listen using headphones, or seated before a stereo component system. Of course, it will be enjoyable on any boombox, even one located in a neighboring room, but why not maximize your delight?

Phi Acoustics Music, December 22, 2003

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