A folk-influenced musician known for music that deals with dark subjects, Richard Dawson released his 7th album, The Ruby Cord, in November 2022.
The Ruby Cord is the final part of a trilogy that started with the pre-medieval world of Peasant and was brought up to the present day with 2020.
The album was recorded with Pigs x7’s Sam Grant at Blank Studios in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Richard’s home town) as well as having a cinematic 40-minute pop video created for ‘The Hermit’ by director James Hankins.
Dawson is renowned for music which is compelling; lyrics which are moving. He’s taken us with Peasant from the deprivations of the Middle Ages to a different kind of suffering in today’s world with 2020.
With the Ruby Cord, Dawson still manages to unsettle us, both through instrumentation and lyrics. This time, he provides a ferocious glimpse of a dystopian future, an apocalypse and the extinction of the human race.
From the tantalising 41-minute opening instant classic The Hermit, to the chilling Horse and Rider, this avant-garde folk hero demands your attention and delivers questionable pleasure throughout his eighty-minute album. Not for the feint-hearted!
Richard Dawson is at City Varieties Leeds on 28 April. Book now because availability is limited.
Photography by Kuba Ryniewicz.
