Steve Dawson with Fats Kaplin | Aleksi Campagne

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Over the past two decades, Steve Dawson has become such an indelible fixture on the Canadian musical landscape that it’s tempting to take him for granted. The music that flows out of him is so natural and authentic that it’s possible to forget all of the toil that went into producing it.

Behind the seemingly endless stream of award winning musical output (he has produced and/or played on more than 200 albums since the turn of the millennium, 7 of which have won Juno Awards), is one of the hardest working musicians this country has ever produced. Whether he’s turning heads on the concert circuit with his incendiary playing, or pulling the best possible performances out of the many artists that he works with in the studio, Dawson is always striving to take things to the next level.

A native of Vancouver, Canada, he currently resides in Nashville, where he works as a solo artist, sideman, and record producer, Steve has forged an impressive career full of highlights and awards, including:

• 7 Juno Awards as artist/producer, 18 times nominated
• 3 times named "Producer Of The Year" at Western Canadian Music Awards
• 4 times named "Producer Of The Year" at Canadian Folk Music Awards
• Recipient of many other awards including Maple Blues Awards, Grand Prix De Jazz De Montreal, Blues Blast Awards, and many Western Canadian Music Awards and Canadian Folk Awards as an artist and producer

Steve’s multi-faceted career has brought him to countless international festivals, working on stage and in the studio with an extensive cast of musicians, including Allison Russell, John Hammond, Sonny Landreth, Van Dyke Parks, David Hidalgo, Jim Byrnes, David Olney, Oliver Wood, Jill Barber, Dave Alvin, Joe Henry, Steve Poltz, Amy Helm, Tim O'Brien, Molly Tuttle, Luther Dickinson, Fats Kaplin, The McCrary Sisters, Matt Chamberlain, Birds of Chicago, Long John Baldry, Bruce Cockburn, Kelly Joe Phelps, Linda McRae, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Geoff Muldaur, Scott Amendola, Danny Barnes, The Deep Dark Woods, The Matinee, Colin Linden, Big Dave McLean, and many others.

Between producing projects for other artists, Steve has recorded music of his own that has explored blues, jazz, Hawaiian, rock, and experimental music. His groundbreaking work with Jesse Zubot in Zubot and Dawson kicked things off in 1998, leading to 2 albums with Toronto jazz stalwarts Andrew Downing and Kevin Turcotte in the award-winning Great Uncles of the Revolution.

For this show Steve will be joined by the talented multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin, an American musician, best known as a fiddler, who also plays guitar, button accordion, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, an Arab oud, and a Turkish cümbüş, among others. Fats has worked with artists such as Jack White, Trisha Yearwood, The Tractors, Nanci Griffith, Pure Prairie League, John Prine, Roy Bookbinder, Beck, Mitski, and Tinariwen.

Steve’s unique voice on slide and lap steel guitar is front and centre, while the two musicians improvise and play off each other as they have done in their frequent work together, featuring the duo's unique take on blues, Hawaiian, and ragtime music that both musicians love to play. 

Aleksi Campagne

Aleksi is uniquely qualified to offer a contemporary, indie-folk take on the time-honoured fiddle-singing tradition. Aleksi grew up on stage. At five years old, he began performing alongside his mother, Canadian folk icon, Connie Kaldor. At nineteen, Aleksi moved to Paris to study under Jazz-violin legend Didier Lockwood. At twenty-one, Aleksi became the only student to have ever been simultaneously accepted into the classical violin, jazz violin and jazz voice performance programs at McGill University. And, by twenty-five, with only a six-song EP, Aleksi graced the lineups of some of the most competitive folk festivals across Canada for three consecutive years - including the Regina, Canmore, and Bear Creek Folk Festivals.

Most recently, Aleksi received both a Canada Council Grant and a FACTOR Grant to fully fund the recording and production of his highly-anticipated 10-song debut album For the Giving / Sans Rien Donner, launched in the fall of 2023. Still based out of his hometown of Montreal, Aleksi floors audiences by singing while bowing his violin and seamlessly navigating songs in English and in French. His original music blends folk songwriting with an edgy, multi-layered sound resulting from his unique combination of voice, violin, and looping- effect pedals.

“The dreamy orchestration and floaty vocals of ‘Another Day’ provide a silken sensory camouflage to Aleksi’s profound mastery of story-telling, letting the listener inside the heart of the singer with wordplay, imagery, pensive pauses and a thrillingly casual whistle solo.” - Paul Corby, Roots Music Canada

The Rogue Folk Club is pleased to provide great Sponsorship Opportunities for all our shows. For a nominal cost, individuals or businesses can sponsor any of our shows and reap a number of benefits - free tickets, reserved table, recognition on literature, our web site and at the concerts. For more information simply contact our Sponsorship Director Morris Biddle at mobiddley@me.com