Seven-time Juno Award winning Canadian guitarist Steve Dawson creates deeply moving ambiances with his unpretentious but dazzlingly fluid guitar playing-straight and slide. Dawson can hold his own with the likes of Sonny Landreth and ought to be a household name to readers of these pages. Cut with a single antique tube microphone, the eleven solo acoustic instrumentals that comprise Rattlesnake Cage are highly inventive, yet hang around cozily like a familiar friend. The moods ranges from "Flophouse Oratory," which stops, starts and weaves together like an old rural Southern storyline, to "The Medicine Show Comes to Avalon," Dawson's delightful tribute to Mississippi John Hurt. You may wonder what possesses a man to come up with "While the West Was Won, the Earth Didn't Know It," or just melt in its beauty. For intimate moments or intense listening pleasure, the music of Steve Dawson can aid the perfect setting.