ROCK & RURAL

When he doesn’t have a microphone in his hand, Steve Dickinson is just an ordinary guy, living in a small
community in rural Ontario Canada.  Held down a job and helped raise a family, just like most other folks.
But Steve has also been blessed with what Canadian music producer Rick Hutt called, “a one-in-a-million
voice” - a voice that has turned the heads of audiences, record producers, and fellow musicians alike, time and
again.

That’s why this ordinary guy has spent the better part of three decades sharing stages and billing with the likes
of The Guess Who, Nazareth, Trooper, Chantelle Kreviazuk, Lawrence Gowan and the late great Jeff Healey. 
It’s why world-class sax player Alto Reed of Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, only needed to hear him sing one
song before immediately contacting Steve with an offer to join him on tour playing concert stages across the
USA.  

The two would go on to record Tonight We Ride, a CD which included contributions from The Motor City Horns,
members of Mitch Ryder’s and Kid Rock’s bands, as well as Ray Minhinnett, long-time guitarist for the
esteemed Glasgow singer/songwriter Frankie Miller and his Full House Band.  And in Ray, the voice once
again found a fan. Soon Steve was recording lead vocals on the Frankie Miller tribute album Double
Takes alongside Willie Nelson, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh and Huey Lewis.

But Steve Dickinson is also a prolific songwriter.  And while he has happily lent his voice to these esteemed
musical talents, the time has come to bring it home.  

Steve was writing and performing his own material even before he recorded his debut CD Blindside - an album
that garnered regular airplay across Canada’s country radio airwaves and beyond.  That effort was followed
by Four Down, and Good Old Days.

His songs are about hometowns and old friends.  They’re about giving an audience permission to be nostalgic
for the past, to remember simpler, happy youthful times.  

And his songs, like his voice, have turned heads.  Could you call his style country?  Roots? Blue Collar? 
Roadhouse?  A case could be made for any of these, but only part marks if you pick just one, because Steve’s
material spans all these genres, striking a familiar chord with a wide variety of folks along the way. Perhaps the
best description going is ‘Rock and Rural’. Straightforward honest lyrics, driven by appealing chord
progressions, delivered with heartfelt energy, that’s Steve Dickinson.