Three songwriters

 

A walk into the recent past of the Minneapolis music scene, confronting personal ghosts in Belfast, Glasgow, and the Scottish highlands, a look at change through many perspectives from Nova Scotia to your town: three very different song poets follow their own roads home.

 

In the part of Minneapolis known as the West Bank, Bob Dylan hung out at clubs like the Ten O’Clock Scholar, and a few years later. Bonnie Raitt came to record her ground breaking mix of blues and folk on her first album. Darryl Hotler walks that neighborhood again, through evocative lyrics set in melodies and arrangements that bridge the years between then and now. West Bank Gone is a tasty bit of well imagined Americana. Especially check out the title track, West Bank Gone, Two for Each Other, and Hotler's’ cover of Dylan’s Girl from the North Country.

Ciaran Dorris is a native of Belfast, whose music and ideas hold a distinct north of Ireland country vibe, and he lives now in Scotland, which has it’s own country style, as well. All that is present on his album Home. What’s also present is a good bit of introspection and a portrait of a man facing change. Dorris is a storyteller, no doubt about that, and he takes journeys of introspection and courage in this project. To see what he’s about here, check out Hometown Goodbye and Ghosts on Glasgow Green.

From an emigrant’s journey through a farmer’s last day to small town days and big city life, Dave Gunning looks at change in the songs on We're All Leaving. He’s a song poet whose vision and stories you won’t have heard anywhere else, and listened to his work may very well speak changes in your own views, as well. Smith’s Rock talks of the hard knocks and hard work of pioneers, Ashen Town looks at the passing of time in a small town, and We’re All Leaving is a view of change that’s at once big picture and intimate.

 

 

Kerry Dexter writes about the arts and creative practice at Music Road and is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators, where she writes about music and travel. Her work has appeared at Barnes and Noble Music, Acoustic Guitar, Perceptive Travel, and other publications, and she is also a former music correspondent at Gather.