George "Smoke" Dawson

I started working on this video in early Spring, but somehow managed to procrastinate its completion until now in October 2017. I thought I’d finish this while George was alive and wondered if I’d ever show it to him, as I didn’t think he’d like it – I’m pretty sure he’d have laughed at its frivolity. And in the meantime, we’ve lost our friend and spiritual Guru. Our lives at Shippy Hollow were significantly enriched because of our friendship with George and will forever be changed because of this loss. No one came to visit more often than George (many times a week), and each time he came, he brought his brand of humor and insight. We laughed ‘til we cried countless times and those memories are priceless (those memories are also somewhat fleeting for reasons best left to the imagination). Our friends became his friends and they all share in our collective sense of loss. The Stevenson community has lost an iconic figure.

The pics contained within began with the first digital camera purchase in 2002, although our relationship began very shortly after we moved to Shippy Hollow in 1997. While he didn’t like having his picture taken, he tolerated my camera(s), and obviously is quite photogenic.

RIP George “Smoke” Dawson 6/5/35 – 10/17/17

Liner Notes: The main reason this production took me so long, was the music. It was difficult for me as I’m quite naïve about Celtic music. I’d start and stop the recording process often. I began by thinking I’d write all original material for the project, but everything sounded so familiar to me, I ended up deciding to just perform and record “cover” versions of traditional tunes. My apologies to the Celtic music fans out there…