Dave Pearson is a player of every sort of steel-string acoustic guitar, as well as electric lap steel.  Dave’s playing is rich, multilayered, and expressive. His compositions are rooted in the American Primitive tradition, but draw inspiration from classical music to tell complex and mesmerizing musical stories, taking the listener on a journey to a faraway place where harmony and rhythm interweave to create a strange and exhilarating sense of peace. 

Dave was just fourteen, living in a tiny town in Pennsylvania, when he first heard the music of American Primitive fingerstyle legend John Fahey. He knew right away that he had to learn to play music like that. He taught himself fingerstyle technique on his department-store guitar, studying performance videos of Fahey, Leo Kottke, and Michael Hedges.  After a college degree in philosophy, Dave found a musical home in Philadelphia, writing instrumental music in the American Primitive idiom for guitar and lap steel and experimenting with new techniques. He released three albums that quickly became sought-after in fingerstyle circles, and played support slots for world-class artists such as Jorma Kaukonen, Tito Puente, and the Moody Blues.

Dave's life took a new turn when he met Gillian Barker, a Canadian philosopher and singer. They soon married, and moved to the Great White North. Since then, he has been performing in venues in southern Ontario, solo and with various ensembles. In addition to six- and twelve-string guitar and lap steel, he has become known for his compositions for the harp guitar, a six-string guitar with six additional static sub-bass strings to give it extra range and resonance.

Dave is fine-tuning the compositions now for a new album to be released in the upcoming year. He and Gillian are also performing as a duo: the Lost Philosophers. To learn about upcoming releases and performance dates, please do join the mailing list! 

You can also contact Dave at pdewey2@gmail.com.