“Is it too soon for a 12 minute a capella song about a quilt maker?”  This is not a question you are ever likely to hear Coldplay’s Chris Martin asking. Come to think of it, the only artist who would ask this is Richard Dawson.

 He is not oblivious to the fact that his music will divide listeners. I put him in the same love it/hate it category of The Fall, Scott Walker and Jandek.  At its heart, it could be classed as contemporary folk music but he has rightly resisted such a reductive label.

From playing pubs and seedy clubs to the luxury of London’s Barbican Centre is quite a leap but it is a measure of how Dawson’s fearlessly individual music has struck a chord in the UK.

Even though it was recorded in 2019, before the pandemic struck, references to social anxiety, empty soccer stadiums and the undercurrents of nastiness sweeping the nation make the songs on his latest album, 2020 seem eerily prophetic

This is the first show Dawson has played in months and he was visibly moved and a little overwhelmed to be playing in front of a live audience again. I, like many, was able to tune into his performance thanks to the online stream which was a bargain at £12.50.  For this, I got to see the one-hour gig plus a slightly awkward 20-minute interview with comedian Stewart Lee with Lee in the role of excitable fan boy and Dawson reluctantly placed in the spotlight.   

For the show, Dawson admitted to being nervous and rusty. At one point while struggling with the strap of his guitar he said: “I’m not a very polished performer, as you’ve probably gathered. I would be horrible if I was, wouldn’t it?”  

If you want a flavour of the scary tension that Dawson’s songs can evoke, watch the official video to The Vile Stuff (directed by Harry Wheeler) where the visuals are as dark as sinister as Chris Cunningham’s urban nightmare rendering of  Aphex Twin’s ‘Come To Daddy’.

Here is my annotated set list to the Barbican show:

  • The Felon’s Song –  unaccompanied vocal performance the background (and video) to which can be found on the Domino Music website  
  • Civil Servant  – one of four songs taken from 2020
  • We Picked Appled In A Graveyard Freshly Mowed –  In his introduction praised a cover of this by The Unthanks   “This is my lego model of that”, he said.
  • Two Halves – dedicated to his nephews,  Matthew and George
  • The Queen’s Head – about a pub flooding but much more besides
  • Joe The Quilt Maker  – the aforementioned 12 minute a capella based on an article in the Discovery Museum archives
  • Improvised instrumental on electric guitar
  • Fresher’s Ball – a touching empty nester tale about parents dropping off their kids at university
  • The Weaver  which hs described as “another song about the production of fabric”
  • Fish And Bird –  a cover of a Tom Waits song from ‘Alice’
  • The Ghost of a Tree – stomping the stage to accompany the third a capella performance of an early song from The Glass Trunk, Dawson  ends with the astonishing lines: “Cramp in our guts, bile in our throats/ Mischief undulating through our bones/ Suddenly the city lights around us/ Disappearing up into the clouds/Seven little sparrows pale as soldiers/Hopping in amongst the curling boughs.”