Gunning, J.P. Cormier perform at Stompin’ Tom Festival July 1
Multi award-winning, Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriters, Dave Gunning and J.P. Cormier will release a new album together titled, “Two”, on Friday, June 30, the same day as they will perform a Main Stage show at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Canada’s Songwriter Festival in Canso, N.S.
Prince Edward Islanders will have a chance hear their new tunes on July 1, when they perform at the Canada Day Concert at the Stompin’ Tom Festival at the Stompin’ Tom Centre, Skinners Pond. The concert, which also includes Small Town Jokurs, Mike Plume, Billy MacInnis and Tim Hus, starts at 4 p.m.
Great friends, frequent collaborators, co-writers and touring partners, Gunning and Cormier have been talking about making an album together since the day they met. The album is called “Two”, because that’s what it is, just the two of them, a news release states.
“We wanted to keep it simple and honest so we essentially made a four-track recording, just two guitars and two vocals. Limiting ourselves this way actually helped inspire the arrangements and the performances. It forced us to dig a little deeper,” says Gunning. Cormier agrees.
“A lot of artists like us feel compelled to put these massive productions together, and we said we’re not going to do that,” he says.
“We’re going to make this record be that large with only two instruments and two voices. And we did that.”
Two is made up of everything the duo excels at. There are new collaborations between the two writers (Brothers, Home To Mary), new arrangements of antique folk numbers (Johnny Armstrong, Katie o’ the Gowrie), and some tasty, surprising covers (Never Picked Cotton, Stompin’ Tom’s Songbird Valley), the release states.
Every song had to meet their very high, combined standards.
“We didn’t take it lightly. We really put our heart into it,” says Gunning.
Individually, Gunning and Cormier will also perform several solo shows throughout the summer and fall.
“Two” is available digitally in Canada at https://itunes. apple.com/ca/album/two/id1243241197 and digital stores internationally.
For more information, visit Gunning+Cormier.com.