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 On July 4th 1954, the day Elvis Presley was rehearsing for his ground-breaking session at Sun Studios in Memphis, Julian Dawson came into the world in London. He grew up as one of seven brothers in London and then in Kent. Nine misspent years at two catholic boarding schools ended when he was expelled the day before his 16th birthday. After a year spent working at various jobs, he went on to study Fine Art & Printmaking at Exeter Art College.
With solo performances and an increasingly popular "Art School Band", Julian soon realised that singing suited him much better than painting - this was confirmed when a professional band with work in US Army bases in (then) West Germany asked him to join them. With the example of the Beatles in Hamburg firmly in mind, he left England overnight to start rehearsals in Frankfurt, however it soon became clear that the army circuit offered no scope for original material, so Julian left to see what the rest of Germany had to offer.
After a move back to England, the next few years saw a lengthy period of gigging anywhere and everywhere with his various band line-ups. After a self-released tape came the first, overdue (independent) record release. Realising that the energy he was spending on keeping a Transit alive could be spent making better recordings, Julian began working at the CAN Studio, near Cologne on tracks which became "The Flood" project with ROSKO GEE (Traffic) and JAKI LIEBEZEIT (from Can). An early 12" on Rough Trade was followed by two highly acclaimed LPs on Polydor - 'As Real As Disneyland' and 'Luckiest Man In The western World', with studio guests like RICHARD THOMPSON, P P ARNOLD and TOOTS THIELEMANS. Excellent reviews internationally and "album of the month" status in Germany added to the growing interest in Europe.
America had always been another goal and 1990 saw Julian's first stateside release - the cd 'Live On The Radio' on Watermelon Records of Austin, Texas. Regular song-writing trips to the US meant that when Julian signed with BMG/Ariola he used his newly-acquired contacts to record 1991's 'Fragile As China' in Nashville with Garry Tallent (E-Street Band) producing and a host of stellar guests including VINCE GILL, BARRY BECKETT, JERRY DOUGLAS and DENNIS LOCORRIERE. The first single 'How Can I Sleep Without You' went straight into the German charts, helped by four months of high-profile touring as special guest of that country's most popular band : BAP.
With the new band featuring Rodney Crowell alumni STEUART SMITH and VINCE SANTORO, Julian had two highly successful European tours (preserved on the BMG live promo cd 'June Honeymoon') and was back in the studio in Nashville in the autumn of 1992, again with Garry Tallent producing, for the next album 'Headlines'. His regular band was this time augmented by guests DUANE EDDY, JO-EL SONNIER, DAN PENN, BILL PAYNE, STEVE FORBERT and 14 KARAT SOUL. On the back of the accapella single 'Sunday Into Saturday Night' the album was released in the UK on Arista, with two further lengthy spells of touring. BMG preserved ten years of "turntable hits" on the 1984 collection 'How Human Hearts Behave'. The statutory extra tracks for the compilation were specially recorded in New York with producer STEWART LERMAN. A stand-out rerecording of 'How Can I Sleep Without You' as a duet with LUCINDA WILLIAMS and two songs with the ROCHES accompanied the selection of singles, live tracks and re-mixes that made up the rest of the collection.
In Spring 1995 the CD 'Travel On' carried on the story - this time recorded at Dreamland Studio in Woodstock, New York. With the accent on his own fine group of players there are still co-writes and collaborations with Nicky Hopkins, Jules Shear and Willie Nile, whilst The Roches and Curtis Stigers contributed vocals. 'Travel On' was released in the German territories March 1995, USA & Canada August 1995 and in the UK in January 1996.
Besides his own albums Julian has recorded three CDs with PLAINSONG - with IAIN MATTHEWS, ANDY ROBERTS and MARK GRIFFITHS - to which all four members have contributed material. Julian has now left Plainsong to concentrate on his own projects. Summer 1996 saw his first production job - producing country legend CHARLIE LOUVIN's 'The Longest Train'. The CD features three of Julian's songs, new versions of six Louvin Brothers classics and a great line-up of Nashville country- rockers accompanying Charlie's soulful voice.
The last two years have seen him performing all over Europe and N. America, including two solo visits to the USA, the first full Plainsong tour with dates in Holland, Germany, Austria & Switzerland, a UK tour with Fairport Convention, three weeks of duets with the wonderful Katy Moffatt and a 24 date solo tour in Germany (Spring 1998) in support of his CD 'Move Over Darling'.
This, his most recent release, (on Fledg'ling in the UK, Compass Records in the US and Canada and SPV in Europe) is JD's first almost acoustic project, recorded in New York with longtime partner Steuart Smith and with return visits from Richard Thompson, Dan Penn and The Roches.
With three videos on rotation on the CMT Country Music Channel, reviews in "Q" Magazine, folk music magazines and the country music press, Julian Dawson continues to chart a cheerfully eclectic course through the contemporary music scene.
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