Gunning for harmony
Performance at Harmony House Theatre in support of 11th album
Dave Gunning takes the stage at Harmony House Theatre tonight.
Eleven albums in, Dave Gunning has become a truly masterful songwriter, one who has earned real peer respect from Canadian folk songwriting legends. He will perform at Harmony House Theatre in Hunter River on Friday at 8 p.m.
“Lift” is Gunning’s first selfproduced album. He has worked as a co-producer, recording engineer and mixer on albums by such top East Coast artists as Bruce and Dylan Guthro, JP Cormier, Steven Bowers, Buddy MacDonald, and Còig, but had never produced his own work.
“I usually record and engineer my own albums but would get someone else to produce,” Gunning explains. “For ‘Lift,’ I put my big boy pants on and did it myself.” Though many of his songs remain rooted in Nova Scotia, the province Gunning calls home, they have proved they can travel well. A genuinely engaging performer and storyteller, he is now a fixture on the folk festival and club circuit across Canada and the U.S. An initial foray into Australia was well-received, and he just returned from a tour there in March. Gunning’s recording career is now approaching a full two decades in length (his debut album, “Lost Tracks,” came out in 1996). He has earned a shelf full of music industry awards. That tally now stands at eight East Coast Music Awards and two Canadian Folk Music Awards, plus a 2012 Juno Award nomination in the Roots & Traditional Solo Album of the Year category for his album “...a tribute to John Allan Cameron,” a compelling homage to one of Gunning’s Maritime musical heroes.
His songwriting skill has also been internationally recognized, with earlier tunes scoring victories and high placings in some major international songwriting competitions. As a fervent hockey fan, Gunning was thrilled to win the CBC’s hotly-contested “Hockey Night In Canada Song Quest” in 2014 with “A Game Goin’ On,” a cowrite with David Francey.
Tickets for the April 8 show are $22 and available online through the venue’s website at www.harmonyhousetheatre.com or by calling (902) 9642255.