Just Us Folk

In the 2024 Bob Dylan biographical film, A Complete Unknown, there are a couple of scenes where people are arguing about what is or isn’t folk music. Is it just traditional songs? Does it stop being “folk” if you use an electric instrument? There used to be those who thought “folk music” was played by some old guy on his front porch in some backwoods holler. But as soon as you put a microphone in front of him, it stopped being “folk.” Luckily that discussion has basically gone by the wayside. Now it’s just a matter of personal preference. There are almost as many types of folk music as there are folk fans.

Last year Nova Scotia singer-songwriter Dave Gunning experienced a bit of that “front porch” type of folk music. Through an invitation from Australian producer Mark Lang, Dave flew to Point Lonsdale in the State of Victoria to record his new album, Field Notes, at Nick Huggins’ studio.

It was a surprising offer considering Dave had no idea what he would be recording. Mark wanted newly written songs with the intent of capturing performances of Dave discovering them as he was playing them.

Adding to the unusual circumstances, Mark and Nick set Dave up on the porch with one just microphone and two additional ones hanging from nearby gumtrees.

“The wind would pick up, the trees would start rustling and the birds would start singing. I’d wonder if the mic was even picking me up!” Dave said.

Dave performed only two or three takes of each song, which were recorded onto an old tape machine. Adding to the freshness of the songs, Mark would give Dave vintage guitars and banjos to play instead of nice, new ones. It was a way to keep Dave out of his comfort zone.

Mark has performed in concert with Dave in the past and it was the “live” feeling Dave projects that Mark was after.

The whole process only took about three days, with another used for shooting album cover photos and videos. Even in those three days Dave only spent a few hours at the studio. The rest of the time he would walk along the beach and relax. Mark even arranged for Dave to go to a spa.

The gift of going to Australia to record an album was quite humbling and difficult for Dave to get his head around and accept. Nick explained that when Mark believes in someone, this was the kind of thing he would do.

Although recording an album in this unusual way is something Dave wouldn’t have tried on his own, he’s happy he did it.

“We’re living in a world now where we can’t tell what’s real half the time,” he said.

“The desire for this record was to make something raw, honest and real because everything around us is fake now.”

For more on Dave Gunning and Field Notes, go to https://www.davegunning.com/