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Dave Gunning receives honourary award from ECMAs

RICHARD MACKENZIE richard.mackenzie @saltwire.com

Pictou County’s Dave Gunning joked he thought he better make a doctor’s appointment after being named the Nova Scotian recipient of an East Coast Music Association’s achievement award.

“I’m blown away by the recognition from them, it caught me totally by surprise,” Gunning said of being named an ECMA 2021 Stompin’ Tom Connors Award recipient. “Of course I’m honoured, it’s just a whole bunch of different emotions.”

His doctor quip is agerelated, based on the fact the award could be considered a lifetime achievement recognition. That is how it was inspired by Connors.

In 1993, Connors was recognized with the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award and he used the occasion to request an award be created to honour those who have made long-term contributions to the East Coast music industry and helped pave the way for successful artists from the four provinces.

Others earning the award this year are Peter Rowan (N.B.), Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers (N.L.), Tara MacLean (P.E.I.) and Wendy Bergfeldt as the Cape Breton recipient.

Gunning talked about touring with Connors when he was a young musician.

“He was a good friend, he meant a lot to me for sure,” Gunning said. “And his legacy certainly means a lot.”

As for what he learned from one of Canada’s most famous singer-songwriters, Gunning said he helped keep him “focused.”

“He was a very smart guy, philosophical,” he said. “We had deep conversations, spent a lot of late nights up with him. He was a very humble man and giving of his time.”

As for the idea of helping upcoming East Coast musicians, Gunning said you always do what you can, but it’s not easy because you can’t point them to a straight line to success.

“There are a lot of people who would like to break into the music scene, but there is no magic answer to any of their questions, like ‘how do I get started?’ My own son wants to be a musician and I don’t know what to tell him. There is no one magic template that works for everybody. Every successful artist has had a different trajectory which brought them to that success.”

That thought brought Gunning back around to Connors.

“Tom’s story is a very beautiful and unique one,” he said. “He roamed the country from coast to coast, for a large part of his younger life, writing songs about whatever village he stopped in, about people he met, and they became the soundtrack of Canada. All these crazy, great songs.”

DEALING WITH COVID

Gunning talked about being in a little bit of a “holding pattern” with COVID.

“We’ll see where it goes. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get back to doing some shows,” he said. “But I think it’s going to be slower climbing over this than people think, at least those from the music industry anyway.”

He noted last summer didn’t end up being too bad with show opportunities popping up once COVID was pushed back.

And while at home, he is getting a lot of tasks done both musically and nonmusically.

“I have been enjoying the time at home, once we made some adjustments and conquered the fear of it all,” he said. “I’ve been doing some writing, recording and working on things; doing a lot of little projects at home.”

Have COVID lockdowns and other aspects of a strange past year snuck into the writing? Hard not to, said Gunning.

“I couldn’t stop it from making it into the songs,” he said. “But they’re not doom and gloom, sad songs necessarily; they feel kind of positive, to me anyway.”

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2021-05-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-06T07:00:00.0000000Z

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