DW Drouillard (born March 23, 1950, in Buffalo, New York) is an American vocalist, songwriter and musician.

Background

DW Drouillard (birth name, David Wilson Drullard) was introduced at an early age to the songs of

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

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The Weavers The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs fro ...

, and the work of

John Jacob Niles John Jacob Niles (April 28, 1892 – March 1, 1980) was an American composer, singer and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers," Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 195 ...

by his mother, Elizabeth Harriet Wilson, a music educator and 1943 graduate of

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

. He entered Trinity Church Choir in 1959, transitioning to

St. Paul's Cathedral (Buffalo) St. Paul's Cathedral is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York and a landmark of downtown Buffalo, New York. The church sits on a triangular lot bounded by Church St., Pearl St., Erie St., and Main St. It was built in 1849-5 ...

Choir in 1962 where he trained as a

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a s ...

in the tradition of

Alfred Deller Alfred George Deller, CBE (31 May 1912 – 16 July 1979), was an English singer and one of the main figures in popularising the return of the countertenor voice in Renaissance and Baroque music during the 20th century. He is sometimes referre ...

. Drouillard attended

University of Mount Union The University of Mount Union is a private university in Alliance, Ohio. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until the spring of 2019. In the fall of 2020, Mount Union had an enrollment of 1,958 undergraduat ...

in Alliance, Ohio and graduated with a degree in English Literature. As a student he was active in the school's madrigal group, the college choir, and was a founding member of the folk group Main Street, Mom, and Apple Pie.

Career

Upon graduation, Drouillard began his music career knocking about the coffeehouses of Spicertown, Akron, Ohio;

Allentown, Buffalo, New York The Allentown district is a neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. The neighborhood is home to the Allentown Historic District. History Allentown is named after Lewis F. Allen (1800-1890) who came to Buffalo in April 1827 to serve as Corporate Se ...

; and

Yorkville, Toronto Yorkville is a neighbourhood and former village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Bloor Street to the south, Davenport Road to the north, Yonge Street to the east and Avenue Road to the west, and it is part of The Annex neighbo ...

, Ontario. He made his first appearance on the venerable WMMS Coffeebreak Concert Series in Cleveland, Ohio, December 6, 1972. Drouillard relocated to New Haven, CT in the fall of 1974 as a featured artist for the historic New York Longchamps Restaurant Group. In addition to his regular schedule, he played opening sets for

Toots and the Maytals The Maytals, known from 1972 to 2020 as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group, one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music. ...

and

Pure Prairie League Pure Prairie League is an American country rock band whose origins go back to 1965 and Waverly, Ohio, with singer and guitarist Craig Fuller, drummer Tom McGrail, guitarist and drummer Jim Caughlan and steel guitarist John David Call. Fuller st ...

. In 1977, Drouillard joined the country-rock band, Yankee, and wrote "Green Eyes Crying in the Rain", which was included on the ''WHCN Homegrown ''compilation album. Beginning in 1981, Drouillard stayed closer to home where he performed at local venues and opened for touring artists including

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Connie Kaldor Connie Isabelle Kaldor, (born 9 May 1953) is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. She is the recipient of three Juno awards. Early life and education Kaldor was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. She graduated from Campbell Collegiate in Regina in 1972 ...

, and

Jorma Kaukonen Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen, Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist J ...

. In 1992 he appeared on the ''WWUH

Folk Next Door {{Short description, Concert and CD series The Folk Next Door was the name of a concert series and CD releases produced on by WWUH, the University of Hartford radio station in West Hartford, CT, USA. There were nine concerts and CDs in all, one eac ...

I'' live concert album and that summer directed the first of three Apple Valley Family Folk Festivals (1992, 1993, 1994). In 1995, Drouillard performed on the ''WWUH

IV'' album and released a retrospective recording of original material, ''Plainsongs'',Swift, Orla. ''Drouillard Collects Tales & Treasures on CD''. Meriden Record Journal, October 20, 1995, P. A12. Meriden Public Library Microfilm.McKeon, Ed. (WWUH-FM radio),Review on Drouillard ''Plainsongs'' (Red Jacket Music), Folk Notes, New Britain Herald, June 29, 1995, P. 8. New Britain Public Library Microfilm. introducing DWDrouilllard and The Great Buffalo Band. Artists appearing on the album include Darren Wallace formerly of the band Filé, Ken Karpowicz of the Zydeco Zombies, Mark Mercier of the band

Max Creek Max Creek is an American rock band that was formed by Dave Reed, John Rider and Bob Gosselin in 1971. Max Creek has a loyal following, and put on an annual music festival at Indian Lookout Country Club in upstate New York, dubbed Camp Creek, and w ...

, Phil Rosenthal formerly of the

Seldom Scene The Seldom Scene is an American bluegrass band that formed in 1971 in Bethesda, Maryland. The band's original line-up comprised John Starling on lead vocals and guitar, Mike Auldridge on Dobro and baritone vocals, Ben Eldridge on banjo, Tom Gra ...

, Todd Cook, and Matthew Chirsky. Also in 1995, Drouillard appeared on the ''Euphonious Mode, Acoustic and beyond..., Volume 2'' CD-ROM produced by Harvee Riggs. Dave's 1996 performance schedule included a return to

Caffe Lena Caffe may refer to: * Caffè, the Italian word for coffee, used as an alternative spelling of café * Caffe (software) Caffe (Convolutional Architecture for Fast Feature Embedding) is a deep learning framework, originally developed at Universit ...

in Saratoga Springs, NY for the 7th Annual Folk-A-Thon and an appearance at

Club Passim Club Passim is an American folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina (now Chopra) and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47 (based on its then address, 47 Mount Auburn Str ...

in Cambridge, MA. Drouillard continues to write and perform, dividing his time between Southern New England and the Niagara Region of Ontario. Dave has performed at the regional 2010 East Rock West Rock Music Festival in New Haven (The Space venue), and the 92nd Annual

Durham Fair The Durham Fair, held in Durham, Connecticut, is one of the largest agricultural fairs in New England and was first held in 1916. The four-day event takes place during the last full weekend of September. Activities include livestock and com ...

Awards and recognition

*''American Hymn'' – Finalist, The American Song Festival 1975, Hollywood, CA *''Green Eyes Crying in the Rain'' – People's Choice Award, New Haven Advocate Poll 1977 *''Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'' – Semi-finalist, New Folk, Kerrville Folk Festival 1993 *''Dominion Blue'' – Semi-finalist (Folk category), Mid-Atlantic Song Contest 1993, The Songwriters' Association of Washington *''Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'' – Festival Performance, Hear in Rhode Island 1996, The Rhode Island Songwriters' Association

Critical citations

*"After a solid year of hard work in the studio. . .Dave Drouillard has delivered a gratifying and infectious collection of songs that plumb the mysteries of life, love, nature and the everlasting pursuit of solace amidst chaos and despair. In fact, many of Drouillard's best compositions deal with journeys through stormy seas and troubled relationships, and across unforgiving landscapes, always in pursuit of an answer that seems to lie hidden just across the next ridge, or beyond a maddeningly distant border. . .Drouillard sings in a tenor laden with the weariness, anticipation and emotion of the search." – Ed McKeon *"Dave does it all. Plan to spend the time and listen to him. One of the finest acoustic musicians we've heard in a long time." – The Clinton Bluefish Festival 1995 *". . .But David Drouillard's valuables are different. His shoe box is filled with a treasure far more personal – his words. . . The album highlights the sweet tenor of this former boy soprano as well as his poetic narrative flair, which often evokes the mythical tone of fairy tales." – Orla Swift *". . .I really wanted to detest this Drouillard record before it went into the sonic transducer. . .But Dave's voice is as pretty a voice as you'll hear in the area these days. OK, "pretty" is a silly adjective to use in most cases, but Drouillard's tenor is all that and more. He brings Celtic influences, a wee bit o' Cajun voilin, and Phil Rosenthal (formerly of Seldom Scene on banjo and mandolin) who adds some natty flavor as well." – Michael Caito

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drouillard, Dw (Dave) 1950 births Living people American folk singers American male singer-songwriters American rock songwriters American rock singers University of Mount Union alumni Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Musicians from Buffalo, New York American folk rock musicians Singer-songwriters from Connecticut