Maria Dunn

Artist Information

Biography

Maria Dunn was nominated for Solo Artist of the Year - 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards for her most recent CD: The Peddler.

"An arrestingly powerful singer-songwriter from Canada who writes great historical and social commentary." Rich Warren, WFMT Radio, Chicago

"...remarkable singer-songwriter, think of her as a distaff Woody Guthrie." Mike Ross, Edmonton Sun

Maria Dunn is a storyteller in song, melding North American folk and country traditions with her Celtic roots. A 2002 Juno nominee (For A Song), Maria performs at theatres, folk clubs and festivals across Canada (Edmonton - mainstage, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Lunenberg - mainstage) and in the USA (2006 Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Washington, DC) and Europe (2008 Celtic Connections, Glasgow, Scotland). She has been featured on CBC National Radio (The Sunday Edition, DNTO, This Morning), BBC Radio Scotland and her original songs have been published in Penguin Eggs and Sing Out! magazines, and recorded by other artists including Niamh Parsons and Bob Bossin.

Maria's fourth CD, The Peddler (2008) is produced by Shannon Johnson of 2007 Juno award winning The McDades; www.themcdades.com. The McDades (Shannon Johnson, Simon Marion, Jeremiah McDade & Solon McDade) helped to arrange and record many of the songs on The Peddler.

Maria is often joined on stage by one or more of the following musicians:

Fiona Coll is a fluid Irish Canadian fiddler who has toured with such acts as Ontario's Heartwood, Calgary's The Wild Colonial Boys, and David Wilkie's Cowboy Celtic.

Lizzy Hoyt (fiddle, mandolin, vocals) combines Maritime fiddling with country-folk sounds from the west. She has toured internationally with artists such as Eli Barsi and Samantha King.
(www.lizzyhoyt.com)

Andy Illig is an expressive guitarist, well-versed in traditional Celtic music. He is currently a member of Edmonton band Celtara.

Shannon Johnson is a highly accomplished fiddler and producer who is known across Canada for her stellar work with 2007 Juno award winning celtic/jazz/global band The McDades (www.themcdades.com).

Dawn Cross is an exquisite singer, matching her sensitive and dynamic voice to Maria's on the recordings and many Alberta-based live performances.

Artist Website: www.mariadunn.com

Bookings, North America:
Distant Whisper Music
(780) 430 8560
Email: distantwhispermusic@hotmail.com

Agent, Manager Europe:
Mc-Ent Management
Website: www.whoisontour.org

Performance References:
Vic Bell, Nickelodeon Folk Club, Calgary, AB (vicbell@telusplanet.net)
Ian Davies, Cuckoo's Nest Folk Club, London, ON (idea@iandavies.com)

Instrumentation

Maria Dunn - lead vocal, accordion, guitar
solo or duo/trio (depending on budget) with various players including:
Fiona Coll - vocal, violin
Andy Illig - guitar, bouzouki
Shannon Johnson - vocal, violin
Craig Korth - banjo, dobro, guitar
Dawn Anderson - vocal

Discography

The Peddler (2008)
We Were Good People (2004)
For A Song (2001)
From Where I Stand (1998)

Links

• Facebook
• Official Maria Dunn Website

Audio

• Katie Comes a-Callin' (The Peddler CD: Track 1)
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• The Peddler (The Peddler CD: Track 2)
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• The Elder Sister (The Peddler CD: Track 3)
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• Tell Her I Was Brave (The Peddler CD: Track 4)
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• You Can't Take That Away (The Peddler CD: Track 5)
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• Sailor Song (The Peddler CD: Track 6)
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• Signal Hill (The Peddler CD: Track 8)
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• Chavala, Eva (The Peddler CD: Track 9)
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• William McIlroy's (The Peddler CD: Track 10)
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• God Bless Us Everyone (Tiny Tim's Song)
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• How Do You Do, 1935? (We Were Good People CD)
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• Can You Blame the Poor Miner? (We Were Good People CD)
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• Take it Easy on Me (Live duo with Shannon Johnson)
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• Mrs. McClung's Address at Walker Theatre (Live solo)
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• Shoes of a Man (Live duo with Shannon Johnson)
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• Do You Know Slim Evans? (We Were Good People CD)
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• The House Jack Built (Live solo)
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• We Were Good People (Live Nov.08 with Shannon Johnson, Dawn Anderson))
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Lyrics

• Katie Comes a-Callin'
• The Peddler
• The Elder Sister
• Tell Her I Was Brave
• You Can’t Take That Away
• Sailor Song
• Signal Hill
• Chavala, Eva
• William McIlroy's
• Take It Easy On Me

Video

Live at Alberta Tracks Concert - Airdrie

Photo Gallery

Press

• Dunn touches on family history in song [+ Show ]
  

  Her new CD The Peddler takes its cues from both the 19th century and today's headlines Published:...Her new CD The Peddler takes its cues from both the 19th century and today's headlines
  
  Published: Friday, October 31, 2008
  
  It's not an easy thing to draw smart, compelling songs from historical sources, or to give contemporary experience a timeless resonance.
  One of Alberta's finest musical storytellers, Maria Dunn, accomplishes both on her new, fourth recording, The Peddler.
  
  "It's funny because I had no idea when I was growing up that I would be so interested in history," admits the Edmonton singer-songwriter. "I didn't find history in school very interesting or the teachers I had didn't know how to make it interesting. It's a tragedy really."
  
  It wasn't until her early 20s when she was able to travel back to her birthplace in Scotland and explore her family roots that history began to play a bigger role in Dunn's self-awareness.
  
  "I was able to read these letters that were exchanged between my ancestors and passed down in the family -- letters about how they made it through the Irish potato famine, which killed millions of people. I realized that if they hadn't survived, I wouldn't be here."
  
  On The Peddler, Dunn has tailored many songs to the form of Celtic ballads and reels so at first listen the album feels anchored in that folk tradition. But beyond the music and the singing -- some of the best she's ever done -- you pick up on the lyrical themes and a songwriter who is also pushing forwards.
  
  Moving stories of love, loss, cultural displacement, even pirates, and east-coasters coming to Alberta for work fill out the disc, and two songs about war have a timely significance. Tell Her I Was Brave is told from a soldier's perspective, while the potent, spare song The Peddler came to her on a trip back from Britain and the U.S. just before the start of the Iraq war.
  
  "I was watching the whole marketing phase that Tony Blair and George Bush were in to convince people that they needed to invade Iraq. It struck me that so much of the information that we were getting through the media had this marketing push, as if it had to happen, but when I spent time with real people in Britain and the U.S., I realized they didn't want it to happen."
  
  It's been a decade now since Dunn released her first solo album, From Where I Stand, followed by the Juno-nominated For A Song (2001) and We Were Good People (2004), a CD based on real-life historical threads about Albertans. Making The Peddler with the backing of The McDades in Montreal and Edmonton sessions over late 2007 and early 2008 brought her to a new creative plateau.
  "The studio process and my singing was all so much more relaxed and in the moment, coming from the last several years of performing and getting comfortable onstage. It's taken a while, but I've been able to shut off my anxiety and making music now feels less like work and more something I really enjoy."
  She credits Shannon Johnson for providing invaluable ears and advice as producer, a role she's played on all of Dunn's recordings. Johnson's fiddle, bassist Solon McDade, whistles and sax from Jeremiah McDade and guitarist Simon Marion complete a rich backdrop for Dunn's accordion and voice.
  
  It's been a busy year for the singer. Apart from finishing The Peddler, she toured, including her first feature-artist performance at the famous Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Scotland, last January, a subsequent tour of the Netherlands, dates in eastern Canada, the U.S., and folk festivals. In addition, she's been creating more songs for a new project set to surface next year, another dip into a rich vein of local history.
  
  

• Dare sample The Peddler’s wares [+ Show ]
  

  Good grief, it hardly seems like 10 years since Maria Dunn released her debut, From Where I Stand. I...Good grief, it hardly seems like 10 years since Maria Dunn released her debut, From Where I Stand. It justifiably launched the career of a talented new songwriter. The followup, For A Song, received a Juno nomination.
And while the honours went to David Francey’s Far End of Summer, she could hardly complain about the company she kept. We Were Good People never quite received the same accolades, possibly because of its political bent. But it contains such remarkable songs as Can You Blame The Poor Miner? and From The Bread Line to the Front Line. And so to The Peddler, the latest chapter in the Dunn canon.

  
  From the jaunty opening of Katie Comes a-Callin’, you can tell there’s something atypical at play here. Her singing is relaxed, more assured, her accordion more to the fore. Throughout, Shannon Johnson’s production is clearly a cut above, with her McDade siblings firing on all cylinders all around her. As always, Dunn’s songs cover a broad spectrum of topics with war (The Peddler, Tell Her I Was Brave) and migration (Signal Hill, Chavala, Eva, William McIlroy’s) taking precedence. Chavala, Eva, with its undertow of klezmer soprano sax, is Dunn in peak form as she retells the colourful life of an immigrant seamstress. The Elder Sister, though, is a whole different kettle of custard with its gripping traditional narrative of jealousy and murder. Look for this song to have long legs. Truly, there’s never a dull moment with a Maria Dunn recording. Dare sample The Peddler’s wares.

• Songs of Hunger [+ Show ]
  

  October 8, 2004 Maria Dunn has discovered her inner historian--just in time for Edmonton's 100th ...October 8, 2004
  
  Maria Dunn has discovered her inner historian--just in time for Edmonton's 100th birthday. What a coincidence.
  
  "I thought that it would tie in nicely," says the local folk musician on the release of her "historically themed" concept album, "We Were Good People." Dunn performs tomorrow night at the Provincial Museum.
  
  For those unfamiliar with this remarkable singer-songwriter, think of her as a distaff Woody Guthrie--a notion made clearer with some new pro-union songs that sound as though they could've been written 100 years ago. While it's maybe a bit early in her career to hurl that kind of praise around, Dunn is a formidable talent. During her Junofest show this spring, schmoozing came to a halt as she held the crowd with nothing more than her voice and accordion accompaniment.
  
  "We Were Good People" was inspired by her stint as an artist in residence at the Edmonton District Labour Council -- more specifically by eyewitness accounts of the "Edmonton Hunger March" in 1932, a peaceful protest that turned into a riot.
  
  Says Dunn, "I cam across a letter written by a fellow named William Dolinsky. He wrote very eloquently about how hard the conditions were in the Depression and how people went out to try and make their message known to the government, and they ended up in this sad and violent ending to the day. He just summed it up so well at one point. 'We were good people. I don't understand how this could have happened.'
  
  "I thought it was a beautiful way of expressing the disappointment, the sadness, when an event like that turned out so different than people had hoped."
  
  Dunn's third album focuses on Alberta's first 50 years as a province with what sounds like authentic language and a Celtic-bluegrass hybrid that gives the whole thing a Cold Mountain in Alberta feel.
  
  There are songs about beleaguered union men, worker's plights, voting rights and the general hardship of being an Albertan in the early 1900s.
  
  Many of the stories you won't hear from the centennial celebration cheerleaders.
  
  "Some people would say that I'm naturally drawn to the sad songs, but I am drawn to telling stories of the underdog," Dunn says.
  
  "I'm interested in people who face adversity and somehow come through it. I find their resilience very inspiring—how some people can live through experiences and come out the other end and not be bitter and have handled things gracefully. That's part of what interests me in writing about these events.
  
  "I think it's important for us to remember that life isn't always easy. It wasn't always easy. And maybe if people can connect in some compassionate way with what the characters in the songs experienced, I think that's a good thing. It gives us a richer understanding of our history and hopefully a richer understanding of the situation in the world as it is today."
  
  The record opened up worlds of possibilities for the 38-year-old songwriter. In researching, writing and recording We Were Good People, Dunn says, "I've discovered this historian in me that I never knew was there. So if 20 years from now I'm tired of the road, maybe I'll go back to school and do a history degree."
  
  Not yet, though: There's *work* to do.
  

• Performing Songwriter Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  Image-laden songs about the turn of the 20th century, immigration and the Great Depression all come ...Image-laden songs about the turn of the 20th century, immigration and the Great Depression all come to life with her honest narration and lilting tone.

• Dirty Linen Magazine
  

  The key to this recording is her songwriting ... compelling and meaningful music.

• Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  Review by Rich Warren Maria Dunn For A Song Dunn succeeds in creating a second recording ever...Review by Rich Warren
  
  Maria Dunn
  For A Song
  
  Dunn succeeds in creating a second recording every bit as dramatic, interesting and impressive as her first effort. She writes and sings with cleverness absent in the milieu of contemporary singer-songwriters. Although richly produced by Shannon Johnson with mainly acoustic and sometimes electric instrumentation, the overall sound pays homage to a traditional feel. Several tracks scintillate with a lively bluegrass accompaniment. Nearly all the tracks include a variety of male and female harmony vocals, although there's nary a need to obscure Dunn's own assured and pleasing voice. She proves this in her a capella performance in English of the traditional "Gra Geal Mo Chroi." Dunn hails from Alberta, Canada, but her music strongly reflects her Irish heritage, especially her way with a tune. The dozen songs, 11 original and one traditional, range from "Maggie Thompson," a ghost story based on a book about the massacre of a farm family, to "The Lingan Strike" about a n 1882 Cape Breton miner strike. A pair of songs, "Take It Easy On Me", and "What Did I Do?" back-to-back on the disc make an interesting pair. The former is a plea for social justice for the downtrodden, while the latter, ostensibly a romantic song, is a personal question. "Nan McGowan" stands up for her safety and dignity in throwing out her loutish drunken husband. Nearly all the songs are narratives or stories of people who either made a mark on the world, or on whom the world made a mark. "God Bless Us Everyone" written from Tiny Tim's perspective in Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a terrific conclusion and a tonic for our times. For A Song definitely establishes Maria Dunn as a major figure among singer-songwriters.
  

• The Casket, Nova Scotia [+ Show ]
  

  Review by Gregory R. McGuire Maria Dunn For A Song Readers of Acoustic Corner will be famili...Review by Gregory R. McGuire
  
  Maria Dunn
  For A Song
  
  Readers of Acoustic Corner will be familiar with Edmonton singer/songwriter Maria Dunn, whose appearance at the 2000 Stan Rogers Folk Festival was a striking revelation. For many music fans, the best part of frequent attendance at festivals is often the exposure to artists of whom one had previously been unaware. Dunn's appearance at the 2000 Stanfest left may of those in attendance asking themselves how they had so far missed finding out about this singer and songwriter.
  
  FOR A SONG is Dunn's second independent release, following on 1998's FROM WHERE I STAND. FOR A SONG was a finalist nominee for the 2002 Roots/Traditional Juno (which was won by David Francey's FAR END OF SUMMER, which was also recently reviewed in this column).
  
  Dunn's approach to music seems to draw on three disparate yet related threads of source traditions. The first is the female singer/songwriter tradition (I hear traces of songwriters like Nanci Griffith and Lucy Kaplansky in several tunes). The second thread is the Celtic folk sound, which is greatly enhanced by the instrumental accompaniment of Shannon Johnson (fiddle) and Craig Korth (banjo; dobro; guitar), the Canadian-Celtic band The McDades and the harmony vocals of Con O'Brien of The Irish Descendents. The final root source is clearly bluegrass, where Dunn is instrumentally backed by perhaps Canada's finest bluegrass outfit, Jerusalem Ridge.
  
  FOR A SONG is one of those rare releases that holds up well after repeated listenings. It is also one of that select group of recordings where I can honestly report that there is not, to these ears, a single weak filler tune.
  
  At first listen, I assumed that I was hearing a number of traditional tunes interspersed with Dunn's own writings. On closer inspection, I discovered that all but one tune are Dunn originals, the exception being a hauntingly beautiful a capella rendition of the traditional Newfoundland song "Gra Geal Mo Chroi".
  
  As mentioned, there is not a disappointing cut on the album, but a few in particular stand out. "Maggie Thompson" is a feminist take on the notorious Donnelly family murder which occurred in Ontario in 1880. Maggie Thompson was the girlfriend of one of the Donnelly brothers who, according to local legend, returned to the courthouse each year on the anniversary of the massacre to futilely demand that justice be done. Referring to the same historical period, "The Lingan Strike" refers to the 1882 coal miner's strike in the Cape Breton town of Lingan. It tells the story of miners from Scotland who were brought to Cape Breton by the mine owners in order to break the new union, but when they arrived and discovered why they had been brought over they refused to do so. The tune gives ample demonstration of Dunn's mastery of the Celtic vocal style, with its swooping elisions and embellishments. Graham Burley on the lowland pipes and Shannon Johnson on fiddle provide the tune with its distinctive Celtic sound. Finally, "Lonesome and Then Some" give ample proof that Dunn is equally at home in both writing and performing solid bluegrass. Propelled by the stellar 5-string banjo of Craig Korth, this tune practically radiates sunshine.
  
  Many a singer/songwriter is capable of writing exceptional tunes (although seldom an entire album's worth), and there are a number of albums in this genre that are distinguished by exceptional playing and recording. However, seldom do you find both in the same release. Given the Celtic and Maritime nature of many of her tunes, perhaps it is time to make Maria Dunn an honorary member of our community!
  

• Penguin Eggs [+ Show ]
  

  Autumn 2001 Maria Dunn For A Song Let's get one thing straight: Maria Dunn is not a singer-s...Autumn 2001
  
  Maria Dunn
  For A Song
  
  Let's get one thing straight: Maria Dunn is not a singer-songwriter. Yes, she's a singer. And yes, she writes songs. But don't confuse her with those miserable, touchy-feely, guitar-strumming sods bemoaning some blackguard who absconded with the family cat. Nah, our Maria belongs to a tradition as old as time itself. Her songs tell stories about real events and people-heartbreaking tales about indentured orphans used for slave labour in rural Canada in the last century, or the reflections and aspirations of the old but yet defiant downtrodden. Her debut disc, From Where I Stand, had all that and more. For A Song takes up where its predecessor left off, covers similar colorful ground, shows rewarding all-round progress, and offers a track that deserves its place in the same pantheon of traditional classics as The Parting Glass, God Bless Us Everyone, indeed.
  At the heart of this disc is the superb subject matter. Maggie Thompson offers a unique take on the murder of Ontario's "Black Donnelly's". The Lingan Strike tells an uplifting tale of union organizing amongst the coal miners of Cape Breton. Heather Down Road relays the independence of spirit gleaned by women working in non-traditional jobs during WWII. And, Nan McGowan defiantly rebukes institutionalized values of wives putting up with drunken husbands.
  
  As poignant as these social comments surely are, they are often dressed up in a disarming lightness with fiddles, pipes, whistles and banjos, courtesy of Shannon Johnson's sympathetic production. Truly, Johnson uses broader but seamless strokes as Dunn flits across folk, country, bluegrass and even an unaccompanied Gaelic air, Grà Geal Mo Chroí. Lester Quitzau's discriminating dobro playing on the gorgeous Take It Easy On Me, being an unquestionable highlight alongside the rousing Gaelic choral arrangement of Poor Lonesome Hen. And if Ramblin' Jack Elliot ever felt the need for new material, he need look no further than the gorgeous Whiskey Evening. An immensely satisfying disc, this, full of optimism and substance.
  
  

• Museum Theatre Proves Perfect Venue for Dunn's Warmth [+ Show ]
  

  September 25, 2001 The Provincial Museum Theatre once again appears to be a legitimate option for...September 25, 2001
  
  The Provincial Museum Theatre once again appears to be a legitimate option for folk and roots concerts...
  
  ...In all it's easy for a well-prepared musician to make a quick and personal connection with an audience and Dunn had no problem in that department.
  
  Looking out at a house that was about three-quarters full, the singer/songwriter (who plays guitar and accordion) sailed through her first set. It was built around the material from her second CD, and brand new release, "For A Song".
  
  While every piece deserved high marks, a triad of tunes presented with countrified arrangements midway through that opener made a major impression on this observer.
  
  The interplay between Craig Korth and Shannon Johnson was superb on "Heather Down Road", while Dunn's voice was the galvanizing force on the bluegrass injected "Lonesome and Then Some".

• Musical History Lessons [+ Show ]
  

  In the wake of Sept. 11, many artists began examining the purpose and relevancy of what they do. ...In the wake of Sept. 11, many artists began examining the purpose and relevancy of what they do.
  
  Edmonton's Maria Dunn, who performed Saturday at Waterloo's Rain Tree Cafe, need not have bothered with such artistic soul-searching.
  
  As a folksinger who views the past through the bifocal lenses of history and music, she reminds us that bad and undeserving things have been happening to people for a very long time. Moreover, she reminds us it's a test of decency and dignity how people deal with adversity, oppression and disaster.
  
  It isn't enough for Dunn to act as a recorder, as a thread of remembrance of things past. She writes songs of empathy and compassion that affirm the human spirit--the strength, courage and honour of people defeated, but not destroyed, by hostile circumstances beyond their control.
  
  In her two 45-minute sets, Dunn drew on material from her new, Juno-nominated "For A Song" album as well as her 1998 release "From Where I Stand".
  
  Accompanying herself on guitar, her 17 songs of the heart ranged over folk, bluegrass and country, including two a capella offerings.
  
  Whatever their style, Dunn's Celtic roots—she was born in Scotland to parents of Irish ancestry before emigrating to Sarnia, after which she moved to Edmonton—were always evident.
  
  Some of her songs dealt with her growing up in Canada, others deal with travel (a musician's life and all that). Others were good, old-fashioned love ballads.
  
  But it was her historical songs—songs about her Celtic ancestry as well as about historical events—that distinguished her as a folksinger as opposed to a singer-songwriter.
  
  ….
  
  She ended her performance with "God Bless Us Everyone", a song from the eyes of Charles Dickens' Tiny Tim, which could have been mawkish and sentimental, but which in Dunn's capable hands was deeply moving.
  

Setlist

A typical Concert setting in a folk club or theatre would include 2 x 45 minute sets from the range of material on Maria's 4 recordings

***

Example of a Folk Festival Concert (approx. 45 minute set list)

The Peddler
Elder Sister
Lingan Strike
Shoes of A Man
How Do You Do, 1935?
Chavala, Eva
Can You Blame the Poor Miner?
We Were Good People
Katie Comes a-Callin'

***

Folk Festival Workshop Ideas

(1) historical songs, labour history, songs of social justice
As artist-in-residence for the Edmonton Labour Council in Spring 2001, Maria researched and wrote new songs about the history of working people in Alberta. She has also written several songs that are not exclusive to the Alberta experience (e.g., The Lingan Strike re: a Cape Breton mining strike) and contemporary songs that reflect current day issues (e.g., The Newcomers' Song commissioned by the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers)
Her latest labour history project is called "GWG: Piece by Piece", a body of newly written songs (2008) inspired by the experience of urban immigrant women who worked at the GWG clothing factory in Edmonton over its 93-year history (multimedia collaboration with Ground Zero Productions Theatre, Edmonton)

(2) new celtic-influenced songs, new songs rooted in tradition

(3) storytelling songs

(4) travelling songs

Basic Requirements

Calendar