Steve Dawson doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who wastes a lot of time scrolling through Instagram reels or Facebook posts.

At the best of times, he balances careers as a highly-esteemed Nashville-based record producer, an in-demand session musician, a record label owner, and an award-winning artist in his own right.

And when the pandemic hit, he used the extra time on his hands to write and record three albums-worth of new music.

Oh, and he launched a remote recording business called Henhouse Express.

But back to that new music.

The second of those three albums – the follow-up to Gone Long Gone, which came out in March – is called Phantom Threshold, and his “people” describe it as “the soundtrack to the movie you’ve always had inside of your head.”

It comes out tomorrow.

It’s an instrumental release that explores some very deep and elusive musical territory.

The core band is comprised of Jeremy Holmes (bass), Chris Gestrin (keyboards), and Jay Bellerose (drums/percussion), and together, they cook up an enticing blend of textured string and keyboard sounds.

Recorded with an array of vintage tube amps, Steve’s distinctive pedal steel sound is always in the forefront, defining parameters for a plethora of unusual instruments ranging from pump organ and accordion to the otherworldly marxophone (a kind of fretless zither played with hammers) and Moog synthesizer.

Guest musicians include Daniel Lapp and Fats Kaplin.

We’re thrilled to premier this video for one of the tracks: “Ol’ Brushy.”

Have a listen!

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