Allen Dobb

Victoria based roots musician and songwriter Allen Dobb, is set to release his third solo recording "Rosetown" (February 2005). After several months of songwriting, he is looking forward to taking this new CD on the road. Inspired in part by his Canadian prairie roots, Rosetown picks up where his last album Bottomland left off, with a collection of narratives and personal songs that surround the fictional and metaphorical small town. Dobb's poetic eye for detail comes through in songs like the "Hired Hand", about a bygone era of prairie life, that tells the story of a young man coming to work on a harvest threshing crew. He swings, too, in the light and bouncy "Song for this Time."

What's new about Rosetown is a lyrical brevity, as in the love song "Reasons Why", and music that speaks with a singular voice. Production this time slips into the background as Dobb's voice and acoustic guitar work come forward. While "Rosetown" might be a small prairie town, Dobb still takes a look outward to a larger world in the walking rhythms of "Train Dream" and the emigrant tale "Mggie O'Donnell". This all makes sense given the series of adventures that took him from his rural Alberta roots, and around the world to jobs in Africa and Arizona using his Range Management degree from Washington State University. Having graced the stages of roots music hotbeds like Nashville and Austin with plenty of stops along the way, it's not surprising to hear Dobb offer, "When I'm touring and playing music, I don't feel like I'm missing anything".

Rosetown

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Allen Dobb’s recently produced CD, Rosetown, conjures-up the Canadian landscape and even deeper, more personal realms. “On Rosetown, Dobb’s vocals inhabit a cast of characters with a master’s grace. One exemplary performance is his reading of “Next Year Country”. On that song he sings both sides of a rural partnership’s longing and caps the tune with a line punctuated with hope. Like the greatest blues, it transcends heartache. Among Rosetown’s strengths is the recording’s flawless sequencing, and “Maggie O’Donnell” flows like a magic trick into “Magnetic North’s” passionate, dreamlike, CD-capping vision. Dobb has created a powerful suite of songs that captures the grandeur of the west and the mysteries of the heart.

Rosetown Medley