It was a brilliant idea for Winnipeg, Canada’s acclaimed blues singer and guitar picker Big Dave McLean to go cuttin’ down in Nashville with the equally revered producer and master guitarist, Steve Dawson. Expectations naturally ran high. With one hell of an instinctive, organic band, the two delivered, proving McLean wonderfully Faded but Not Gone. Incomparable talent and tunes that run the gamut reign and never fail on this record. McLean grounds out the traditional “Tough Times” to start, right away packed with incredible insight and grit and one of Dawson’s best acoustic slide shows. Tampa Red’s “Dead Cat on the Line” rolls gleefully, “The Fallen” haunts, and the funky Crescent City lift of Oliver Wood’s “One More Day” contains another of Dawson’s outstanding moments on slide. If the label says Black Hen, buy it without hesitation. Dawson owns it. Right up the alley of Allman Brothers fans.