Vancouver Folk Music Festival

July 14 to 16, 2023

Steve Dawson and The Hooded Mergansers | BC/TN

Vancouver Folk’s favourite son, Steve Dawson, could be described as the renaissance man of roots music. A true dynamo, he’s a solo artist, composer, sideman, multi-instrumentalist, podcaster and record producer with over 100 albums under his belt. Now he takes centre stage at the festival with his stellar band, The Hooded Mergansers: Joachim Cooder (percussion), Sam Howard (bass) and Darryl Havers (keyboards).

In Steve’s first band, The Spirit Merchants, he formed a powerful musical bond with fellow member and violin virtuoso, Jesse Zubot. One of the most original acts in Canadian roots music, Zubot and Dawson created their own sub-genre of music known as ‘Strang’, a unique mix of a variety of musical styles.

Since moving to the music mecca of Nashville in 2013, it’s been full tilt, career-wise, for Dawson. When not producing albums for a slew of roots artists, touring and recording under his own name, or producing his acclaimed ‘Music Makers and Soul Shakers’ podcast (now clocking in at well over a hundred episodes), Dawson can be found out on the road supporting friends such as the Maritime powerhouse, Matt Andersen, or Birds of Chicago, with whom he played over 250 shows pre-pandemic. We are delighted his road now brings him back to VFMF!

Steve is also the music director for the evening stage production: American Beauties: Songs of the Grateful Dead Re-Imagined.