Great news – Dave is one of the finalists in the instrumental category of the 2026 International Acoustic Music Awards. Dave was nominated for the tune Lucinda, which appears on his newest album, The Healing Garden.
Congratulations to all the other finalists, and to our friend Dave Gunning, who is nominated in the Folk/Americana/Roots category.
For a list of all the finalists, please click here.
Video courtesy of Linda Morrison
We've posted some live videos from Dave's Nov. 28 concert at Café Mariposa in Montreal. Thanks to everyone who came out to the concert; particular thanks to Mariposa Victor and his team for hosting this rare solo concert by Dave in his home town!
You can find the new videos on Dave's YouTube channel.
Dave plays a rare solo concert in his home town next month.
Dave will be appearing at Café Mariposa, the heart and soul of the Montreal's folk community, on Friday, Nov. 28. The concert will feature Dave's award-winning instrumentals as well as some new songs from his musical life in Victoria, B.C., Edmonton and Montreal.
Café Mariposa is at 5562 Upper Lachine Road. The concert begins at 6:30; there is a $10 cover charge. You can reserve now for dinner and/or cocktails at 514-699-5951 by text.
Stay tune for more details!
Dave will team up with his old musical friend David Francey for a show at the Piggery Theatre in Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, Que., on Saturday, Aug. 3. He'll be joining David's fleet-fingered fiddler Jess Wedden for the concert at the venerable Eastern Townships venue.
David, of course, needs no introduction, especially in the Townships. The multiple Juno winner is a former resident of Ayer's Cliff and got his musical start in the area in the late 1990s before moving to Elphin, Ont.
That's when he and Dave first played together, forging a bond both musical and personal that has lasted decades.
The show is at the Piggery, 15 Chemin Simard in Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley. That's a short drive from North Hatley, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Coaticook, Magog and Ayer's Cliff. You can find directions to the venue here.
Tickets are $35, available from the Piggery.
The photo above was taken at Parc Valois in Pointe-Claire, Que., where Dave played with his band Steel Rail on Thursday, July 25. The evening featured some blazing picking on a couple of Steel Rail originals as well as some old favourite tunes. One of the highlights was a version of the classic Flower in the Wildwood played at a tempo that lead singer Tod Gorr used to describe as “fast as you dare.” For more news about that concert, check out the Steel Rail website.
Please stay tuned for upcoming news on some Dave Clarke solo appearances this fall.
It was great to see David Francey and his fabulous band – Chris Murphy and Jess Wedden – at the Chalet Bellevue in Morin Heights Friday, April 12. It was great to be able to join David, a longtime musical friend and former touring mate, on stage for two of the songs from his Juno-winning album The Breath Between. Some highlights for me: the title track of that great new album and some of our old favourites, including Hard Steel Mill, Paper Boy and Borderline – and of course, four-part harmony versions of Torn Screen Door and Red-Winged Blackbird from back in our early days.
Thanks, David, for the music and the friendship, and to Chris and Jess for welcoming me on board. Thanks too to SuperFolk Morin-Heights, the presenter of the concert and the best thing to happen musically to that community in a long time. You can check out their programming here.
You can see David with Chris and Jess in St-Damien-Buckland, QC, tonight and in Fredericton, N.B., on May 1. Don't miss them if they come through your town.
Here are some more photos from Morin Heights.
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Thanks to everyone for the kind wishes over recent developments. It was a thrill to play on David Francey's Juno-winning album The Breath Between, and thanks to everyone who came to the Steel Rail concert at the Festival de la voix April 7.
I'm looking forward to spending some time with David at his concert in Morin Heights as part of the SuperFolk series tomorrow, April 12. If you don't yet have tickets, I'm afraid it's too late – the show at Chalet Bellevue is sold out.
Dave and David Francey:
together again
One of the key relationships in Dave's musical life is his friendship and collaboration with celebrated singer-songwriter David Francey.
Dave was an early champion of David's music, the two Davids toured together in the early 2000s and Dave co-produced two of David's Juno-winning albums.
Now the pair are reuniting for three tracks on David's upcoming album, including a beautiful new song called The Breath Between. Dave will also join David for two live performances in Ontario over the next couple of months, including a show at the Royal Canadian Legion in Huntsville on June 22 and a headlining gig at the Upper Canada Folkfest in Prescott on Aug. 27.
Dave and David have made some beautiful music over the years. Here's to more of the same!
Like so many musicians in Canada, we were saddened to learn of the death of Michael Wrycraft, a brilliant album cover designer and a passionate friend and music lover.
Michael designed the cover of two Dave Clarke albums, The Healing Garden and Reunion (shown here), as well as the most recent Steel Rail album, Coming Home. He was a larger than life individual and someone who made a profound contribution to the roots music community in Canada.
You can read more about Michael's life in this Roots Music Canada article. He will be greatly missed.
Depending on whether you believe the prediction of Wiarton Willie or newcomer Lucy the Lobster, winter is nearly over -- or it's not.
No matter who's right, good conversation and good music can warm up the coldest day. There's plenty of both on Just Us Folk, the weekly show by Jan Vanderhorst devoted to roots and acoustic music.
On this week's show, Dave joins Jan for a discussion of his latest album, The Healing Garden. Jan, a longtime musical friend, elicits some interesting observations and plays music by not only Dave but Gurf Morlix, Ken Dunn and Mike Trask and Julie Aubé, among others. You can hear the show here.
Thanks, as always, for the support, Jan!
That's the way venerable folk DJ Jim Marino is describing the January 15 edition of his Freewheeling Folk Show on 93.3 CFMU in Hamilton, Ont.
Jim is featuring Dave's band, Steel Rail, in the first half hour of the show, starting at 9:30 a.m. After 10, the focus is on Dave's music and a Martin Luther King tribute, with Dave speaking with Jim live starting at 11 a.m.
The show will also look at Dave's West Coast bluegrass band, Shearwater, at the end of the program.
You can read more on the Freewheeling Folk Facebook page here.
Jim's show is now in its 28th year at CFMU, the station at McMaster University. Thanks for the support, Jim, not only of Steel Rail and Dave, but hundreds of other folk artists over the past three decades.
Back home in Montreal
There’s no place like home.
That’s certainly been the experience of Dave Clarke, who is back in his home town of Montreal after a nine-year ramble across the Canadian West that took him all the way to Vancouver Island and back again.
Even better, he has just released his third solo album, a compilation of guitar instrumentals that is called The Healing Garden.
You can find out more about all of Dave's solo work -- The Healing Garden, Reunion (2007) and Guitar Songs (2002) -- on the Music page.
By the way, that's Dave's 1938 Martin D-18 at the top of this page: it has been his constant companion since he ordered it, sight unseen, from Elderly Instruments in Michigan way back in 1980.