Zubot and Dawson were a folk duo from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada, that consisted of

Jesse Zubot Jesse Zubot (of Britannia Beach, British Columbia) is a Canadian musician primarily known for his unique violin playing. Zubot also works as a composer, producer and recording engineer. History Zubot's acoustic-instrumental group Zubot ...

on fiddle and Steve Dawson on guitar. They played largely folk-inspired acoustic music and released three albums. They toured both North America and Europe. In 2003 they won a Juno award for the album ''Chicken Scratch''."2003 Juno Awards winners list."
''Billboard'', 4/7/2003

History

Dawson attended Berklee School of Music and began to work together with

as the Spirit Merchants, which involved had a constantly changing rhythm section. With a changing focus, Zubot and Dawson reduced the project to a duo, using their own names, with a more acoustic focus. In order to have their material released, Dawson set up his own label, Black Hen. Their first album, ''Strang'' was a reference to a self-proclaimed genre, while their album ''Tractor Parts: Further Adventures In Strang'' (2000), was nominated for a

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

in 2001. They released their final album Chicken Scratch in 2002, which received the 2003 Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for a Group. The duo ceased to function as Dawson preferred to focus on his production work and reduce his travel commitments and Zubot wanted to stretch out musically into other genres as well as concentrate on album production and film scoring.

Members

Zubot plays

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

as well as electric mandolin while Dawson plays acoustic, tremolo acoustic, National tricone and Weissenborn Hawaiian

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. While the group started as a duo, other players were added over the years. Andrew Downing joined Zubot and Dawson as a

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

player. Elliot Polsky joined the group as percussion player. The group also occasionally features musical friends such as

Bob Brozman Bob Brozman (March 8, 1954 – April 23, 2013) was an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist. Biography Brozman was born to a Jewish family in Long Island, New York, and began playing the guitar when he was six. He performed gypsy jazz, ca ...

and Kelly Joe Phelps. Dawson and Zubot both participate in the project

Great Uncles of the Revolution Great Uncles of the Revolution is a Canadian band that consists of Jesse Zubot, a violinist/mandolinist, and Steve Dawson, a guitarist/dobro player. Their musical style draws on contemporary bluegrass and jazz. History In 2001 the band released a ...

Discography

;Albums *1998: ''Strang'' (Black Hen Music) *2000: ''Tractor Parts: Further Adventures in Strang'' (Black Hen Music) *2002: ''Chicken Scratch'' (True North)

References

External links

Steve Dawson
official website
Black Hen Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zubot And Dawson Canadian folk music groups Canadian jazz ensembles Musical groups from Vancouver Musical groups with year of establishment missing Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year – Group winners Black Hen Music artists True North Records artists