Join us for an afternoon of recollections of some key moments in the history of North America’s folk movement with one of the genre’s key figures in the folk music boom of the late 1950s, Canadian-born musician Bonnie Dobson, composer of the haunting anti Nuclear anthem Morning Dew that was released on her Prestige International album At Folk City in 1962.
Forshadowing the nuclear concerns of the time ,this iconic song has been recorded by everyone from psychedelic rockers the Grateful Dead, Lulu, Ralph McTell, Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck and Clannad. In recent times it has also been covered by Devo and former Led Zepplin front man Robert Plant.But when American singer Tim Rose (who was no stranger to taking composition liberties with songs) covered the song in 1967, he boldly added his name to the songwriting credit. For decades, Rose collected royalties and claimed the song as his. Dobson spent decades battling to regain what was rightfully her song alone.
Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew tells the fascinating story of a naive young folk singer from Toronto who grew up poor in a fractured family living in government housing. Gifted with a soaring soprano voice and a passion for traditional folk music, Dobson began her career in North America, where she released a half-dozen albums and appeared at all the major folk music venues including Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, rubbing shoulders with a plethora of folk giants including there an unsigned Bob Dylan.
Signing to Nimbus records (home of The Guess Who) and RCA Canada . Bonnie worked with legendary producer Ben McPeek and produced undoubtably two of the greatest orchestrated Pop Sike albums of the late 60s. Her self titled début and the Nashville recorded follow up Good Morning Rain championed by the likes of Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker amongst others.
She later moved to Britain to follow her heart and soon found herself being tapped to perform with the BBC and recording albums for Argo and Polydor.
Now an octogenarian, Dobson continues to write and record new music. Her 2025 album Dreams, recorded with the rootsy British group The Hanging Stars, was hailed far and wide, while her live performances continue to dazzle, whilst her songs have been sampled by renowned hip hop stars such as Eminem, Deltron 3030 and electronic composer Caribou.
It is also an honour to welcome John Einerson an award-winning author of more than twenty music biographies including Neil Young, Randy Bachman, John Kay of Steppenwolf, Ian & Sylvia, The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Arthur Lee & Love, and Buffalo Springfield. Four of his books have been on the Globe and Mail bestsellers list while several have been ranked among the top ten best music biographies in the UK. Einarson received the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award for Excellence in 2006. As a music journalist he has written for Mojo, Uncut, Goldmine, Discoveries, Record Collector, and Classic Rock and is a regular contributor to the Winnipeg Free Press.He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
