Taylor Goldsmith at the Raccoon Motel -- February 4.
Friday, February 4, 7 p.m.
The Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
Performing locally on February 4, Taylor Goldsmith – one of the co-founders of the acclaimed indie outfit Dawes – will headline an acoustic set at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the singer/songwriter having also performed on albums by Jackson Browne, John Fogerty, Dave Rawlings, Sara Watkins, and his wife and This Is Us star Mandy Moore.
Dawes was formed by Goldsmith alongside his younger brother Griffin Goldsmith, his former bandmate Wylie Gelber (bass), and Tay Strathairn (keyboards) from the band Simon Dawes after the departure of co-songwriter Blake Mills, with the musicians abandoning their post-punk sound in favor of folk rock. At the invitation of producer Jonathan Wilson, the artists joined a local informal jam session that included Conor Oberst, The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson, and Benmont Tench, and recorded their debut album North Hills in Laurel Canyon in a live setting to analog tape, resulting in a sound that Rolling Stone called “authentically vintage.” Dawes went on to make its television debut on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in April of 2010 and released its second album Nothing Is Wrong the following June, consequently touring the United States as co-headliners with Blitzen Trapper. The musicians' public awareness increased when their song “Just Beneath the Surface” from 2013's Stories Don't End was featured in an episode of the animated series American Dad!, and in April of 2015, Dawes performed on The Late Show with David Letterman, paying tribute to Warren Zevon with its cover of “Desperadoes Under the Eaves.”
Two months later, Dawes' fourth album All Your Favorite Bands was released, with the fifth – We're All Gonna Die – landing in September of 2016. The record marked a distinct change of style, building on the band's previous Laurel Canyon folk rock sound with a sonic twist, adding in more synthesized keyboard sounds, heavier bass, and an overall different sound for the group, though the musicians continued to stay true to their roots. Additional albums followed in 2018's Passwords and 2020's Good Luck with Whatever, and Goldsmith himself has also written and co-written songs for other bands, including songs on his wife Mandy Moore's seventh album Silver Landings, Conor Oberst's Salutations, Brandon Flowers' The Desired Effect, and Robert Ellis' The Lights from the Chemical Plant.
Additionally, in 2014, Goldsmith was asked by producer T Bone Burnett to join a project called The New Basement Tapes that wrote and recorded songs based on recently uncovered lyrics written by Bob Dylan in 1967.Goldsmith joined Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Rhiannon Giddens of Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Elvis Costello during the recording sessions, which resulted in the album Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes and the Showtime documentary Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued. Goldsmith received co-writing credit for the songs "Kansas City," "Liberty Street," "When I Get My Hands on You," "Florida Key," "Card Shark," and "Diamond Ring," and was also credited for playing bass, guitar, mellotron, organ, and piano, as well as for singing.
Taylor Goldsmith's 7 p.m. Davenport engagement on February 4 features a set by Harrison Whitford and will be followed by a 10 p.m. concert set with Joshua Ray Walker. For more information and tickets, visit TheRaccoonMotel.com.
