East Coast Music with Bob Mersereau
Tuesday, December 6th

Congrats to Pictou County, NS stalwart Dave Gunning, who was one of the big winners at this year’s Canadian Folk Music Awards, held this past weekend in Toronto. Gunner, as he’s affectionately referred to by pals such as George Canyon, grabbed two trophies, and landed smack-dab on the national radar, where it’s well known he deserves to be recognized. His wins came for Traditional Singer of the Year, and (I always love this one) Emerging Artist of the Year. Given that he’s been emerging since 1997, perhaps it should be called, The Trophy We Should Have Given Him Last Millennium.

Gunning was acknowledged for his most recent album, A Tribute To John Allan Cameron. Cameron, of course, was the Godfather of Cape Breton music, the man most responsible for its revival and popularity from the 1960′s to today, a TV star in this country, and a musical ambassador in others. For Gunning, it was personal. Cameron played the first concert he ever saw (with Stan Rogers opening!), made him want to play music, and even eventually join his band. Having previously been instrumental in arranging a tribute concert to Cameron when he was ill, he took the project to the next level after his passing in 2006. Enlisting a stellar group of players (J.P. Cormier, Ian McKinnon, Christina Martin, plus Cameron regulars Allie Bennett and Pee Wee Charles), Gunning dove into the project with all his ability. On some songs he faithfully recreated Cameron’s signature 12-string guitar style; others he adapted to his own ways, but always with respect for the original.
These are the songs many Maritimers remember as the backbone of the music in our community in those days: Farewell To Nova Scotia, The Four Marys, and of course, his theme, Lord Of The Dance. We could get all technical, and look at the Cape Breton styles and folk music history, trace it back to Scotland like Cameron did, but you don’t have to get scholarly; I just remember how happy it made people when he played it, and how happy he was on stage.
Gunning has said this album was done as a side project, between his regular discs, one for the home team back in Atlantic Canada, but not something he’d expect to get much interest for in the rest of the country. It just goes to show that now, as he was in his heyday in the 1970′s, John Allan Cameron is beloved, and Gunning as been recognized as someone equal to the task of reminded us of that. And hopefully, they won’t be calling him “emerging” anymore.

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