Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Big Dave McLean, the heart and soul of the Winnipeg music scene, has been singing the blues better than anyone for decades now. If there’s a blues club in Canada worth its salt, he’s played there. After all, how many other singers had their first guitar lesson from John Hammond and got to open up for Muddy Waters?
Faded but Not Gone is Big Dave McLean’s seventh – and quite possibly – best album of this JUNO Award and Western Canadian Music Award winner’s lengthy career. Recorded while he was still trying to absorb the deaths of his mother and brother, Faded but Not Gone is a vital, deeply heartfelt expression of loss and recovery and McLean’s most personal album to date.
Recorded in Nashville, TN at The Henhouse Studio with producer Steve Dawson, Faded but Not Gone features John Dymond and Gary Craig (of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) as the stellar rhythm section on the album. Guests include Colin James, Colin Linden, and the McCrary sisters, and Steve Dawson is heavily featured as a session player on the album, accompanying Big Dave’s own fine National Steel and harmonica playing.
Faded but Not Gone received a nomination for Acoustic Album of the Year at the Blues Blast Awards, held yearly in Illinois.