What started as a fascination with his fitness videos and a deep love of his latest album, Sad Hunk, has turned into us joining forces this fall for a bunch of co-headline shows with the masterful Bahamas. But it’s not your typical co-headline bill. At these shows Dawes (we) will be members of Bahamas and Bahamas (Afie) will be in Dawes. Just a steady flow of each other’s songs all night long. No opener.

Come get weird with us. Tickets at https://dawestheband.com/tour/

‘Nothing Is Wrong (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)’ out now on LP & digital!
Featuring…
-2 creamy white LP’s in a deluxe die-cut jacket w/ front window and gold foil
-Bonus 7” with B-sides “Strangers Getting Stranger” and “Rest Easy”
-New and enhanced album art
-Custom inner-sleeves with new liner notes by Taylor
-Includes digital download with 4 ‘NIW’ session B-sides
Listen & Order Your Copy at https://found.ee/Dawes10thNothingIsWrong

Sound checks, curb sides, hotel rooms, and especially the back row of the van…that’s where all these songs got worked through and finalized. Our only clear objective was filling the holes in the live set. More than half of that first record is either very slow or very soft. Meanwhile we were becoming a rock and roll band that wanted to play loud. We wanted the songs to be bigger, faster, louder. So that’s how I tried to write. I remember putting together the outro to Fire Away and dreaming about what it would sound like on a stage. Those were the moments we were looking for. Finally, after road testing each song ad nauseam (except Little Bit of Everything – that one was written the day before it was recorded) we took them back to our trusted producer Jonathan Wilson and spent a brisk month getting them all down to tape.

The songs themselves were coming straight out of my life at the time. No one was safe. If I shared a particularly lively conversation with someone or even a more intimate encounter, it was all immediately fair game. My parameters for discretion were not quite established yet. It took me a second too long to realize how voyeuristic being a writer could be. I still needed to figure out how to add a layer or two to an emotion, how to express myself without putting all my cards on the table at every opportunity. But maybe that’s what being 25 is all about. All the rest would come later. I’m just glad it’s all there for us to reach back into on any given night. Each record has been a turning point and something of a growth spurt, but maybe none as pivotal as Nothing Is Wrong was for us. That was the moment where we could see ourselves turning from hopeful upstarts into lifers. Glad it’s still worth talking about 10 years later.

From the Bullpen #8 (Click Here to Listen)

I remember hearing The Waterboys for the first time. It was embarrassingly recent. I had the radio on, which is rare these days, and on came The Whole of the Moon. I fell in love in a way that’s harder and harder to do as I get older. It was that very special adolescent feeling of coming across something that speaks to you and for you. I immediately did a deep dive. Studied the records, even read Mike Scott’s autobiography and finally ended up playing this song in a rehearsal one day. It started with Griff’s drum part. Then I started playing the changes and everyone fell in and we’ve played it the same way ever since. This must have been sometime in 2015. Duane Betts was in the line up helping us bring this one to life each night. It’s the only cover we’ve done that felt like it was ours. Covers can sometimes just feel approximations or hat tips, which are great. This felt like we created something that belonged to us. Obviously indebted to the Waterboys masterful version. But it felt like we found something that could sit well next to any of our songs on a setlist. It often still does. Happy to be sharing the recording with you.

As happened when it was first released back in 2016, all proceeds will go to Nothing But Nets; the world’s largest grassroots campaign fighting to end malaria, a preventable disease which claims the life of a child every two minutes. Nothing But Nets brings together UN partners, advocates, celebrity champions, donors, and organizations to raise awareness, funds, and voices to protect vulnerable families from malaria. Learn more at nothingbutnets.net

Listen at https://found.ee/DawesFishermansBlues

When we met Phil Lesh at a show we were all on, I figured that was as good as it could ever get. Turns out I was wrong. We are beyond honored to be playing these shows along with Nicki Bluhm & Grahame Lesh….

GRAB TICKETS HERE Without love in the dream it’ll never come true

From the Bullpen #6 (LISTEN HERE)

Last year we were asked to contribute to Tom Petty’s 70th Birthday Bash hosted by Sirius XM. We chose to record his tune Walls from the She’s The One soundtrack. That final verse – “Some things are over / Some things go on / Part of me you carry / Part of me is gone” – had brought me to tears on several occasions after his passing in the new unintended context I was hearing it in. His songs have such an incredible ability to be about everything at once and this was always one of my favorite examples (He’s also the king of the third verse if you really look into it – Insider, Walls, Free Fallin’ etc. – I promise, it bears out). On the original recording Lindsey Buckingham does all the insane background vocal layering, so in that same spirit we invited our buddy Mike Viola to join in on it and go nuts. It’s my favorite part of the recording for sure.

We never crossed paths with Petty himself but got close with Benmont Tench over the years (he’s even playing organ on a few songs on Nothing Is Wrong) and at some point in 2017 we cut this mighty version of Mistakes We Should Have Made with Mike Campbell in the producer’s chair. We even got to cut it at his home studio where they made most of not all of Full Moon Fever…

Anyway, we thought these two songs together could be a bit of a two-part hat tip to Petty and the Heartbreakers. What they’ve given us, what they’ve meant to us and what they still mean to us could never be fully expressed. We’ll always have deepest of gratitude….

Hope you all enjoy!

Listen at https://found.ee/dawes_pettyrips

Listen at https://found.ee/DawesSketches

Taylor:
I’m pretty sure that for a lot of people the best part of a Dawes show is when the 4 of us step into the shadows to let Lee Pardini do whatever the fuck he wants while leading us from one song to another. If anyone can ever see my face in those moments, I’m usually sharing a dumbfounded, jaw dropped smile with one of the other guys as we all marvel at his excellence.

For this next From The Bullpen release (officially #5 if we retroactively start our counting with that Feed The Fire single package), Lee has recorded Didn’t Fix Me and Me Especially as solo piano pieces. It’s an experience not unlike having only the strawberry Starburst while not having to bother with any of the lesser flavors. Just an unadulterated, one on one reckoning between you and the forever Dawes MVP.

Lee:
When you have material this good it makes it easy. Re-interpreting songs I love has always been something I’ve done, but I’ve never had the privilege of being in the band who’s songs I’d be re-working.

Dawes is a special band in regards to how we approach songs night after night. No show is the same, no song has ever been played the same way twice. Although on the surface the style of these solo piano versions may be different, the spirit remains the same- be present in the moment, and be open to all possibilities. I changed a key, added a chord, extended a rhythm, with the intention of exploring all that these songs have to offer. The way I see it, jazz and rock n roll are completely related, even inextricably tied together. They both contain elements of danger and fearlessness. At their best, they’re both reckless and thoughtful, more heart than brain.

Performed, produced, and engineered by Lee Pardini at Pardeffernan Studios.
Mixed by Dave Cerminara
Mastered by Paul Blakemore
Artwork by Ian Bush
Songs by Taylor Goldsmith