Proud to be Americana

Making Esquire’s playlist of “30 Summer Songs Every Man Should Listen To” in June wasn’t as spectacular for Dawes as the very reason the unabashed American folk-rock band made the list. The group’s occasionally brain-twisting, often heart-pulling, always memorable lyrics are being cited as magnets by a mainstream press known for overlooking words in favor of more immediate sounds and calculated images.

“You still look like a Friday night. You’re still caught somewhere between the plans and dreams, so neither end up turning out right,” songwriter and lead vocalist Taylor Goldsmith sings on “Coming Back to a Man,” just one of many dusty treasures buried on the band’s Laurel Canyon-recorded sophomore album Nothing Is Wrong.

“Lyrics are a priority for us,” Goldsmith says. “Not that it’s a lost art—people like Bill Callahan and Conor Oberst are out there—but it’s not really a priority for some other artists.”

The L.A.-based quartet has had a big year. Recently, one of Dawes’ deepest inspirations shifted from hero to collaborator when Goldsmith received a call from Robbie Robertson, co-founder and chief songwriter for The Band. Robertson asked Goldsmith to sing harmony on “He Don’t Live Here No More,” the lead single off Robertson’s comeback record How to Become Clairvoyant. That gig led to more when the rock ’n’ roll legend chose Dawes as his backing band this spring for a string of TV appearances to promote the record.

“[Dawes are] all at the top of their game,” Robertson told Rolling Stone in March. “I’m the one that’s a little rusty.”

Backing Robertson was a dream come true, Goldsmith says, even if he never really had dreamed it was possible for a band whose standout cut from 2009’s debut North Hills was the humble, if meekly ambitious, “When My Time Comes.” But come it has.

Since 2009, Dawes has toured with Jackson Browne and jammed with Oberst, Pat Sansone of Wilco and Benmont Tench of The Heartbreakers, and they’ve made trendy men’s lifestyle magazines take a good hard look at what songwriters have to say.

Goldsmith’s vintage-roots songcraft that was once the basis for the band’s aesthetic inspiration is budding into its own road-tested legend.

No longer the mere heirs of Gram Parsons and Neil Young, Dawes is taking the SoCal folk-rock torch and running away with it. All this from a young band whose hometown is known for just about everything but authenticity these days.

“In some ways, our sound is very L.A.,” Goldsmith says, perhaps with Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon in mind. “It’s just a different L.A. than what you see on TV. It’s an L.A. from a long time ago.”

Dawes performs live at Manship Theatre Oct. 15 with Blitzen Trapper and Smoke Fairies. Turn to page 104 for a Q&A with Blitzen Trapper. dawestheband.com