Gatefold double LP version. Includes a CD with three bonus tracks, plus lyric sheet inserts. Richard Dawson has been a much-loved musical spectacle in his native Newcastle for many years now, a skewed troubadour who sings and plays guitar with a rare intensity and a very singular style. Beguiled northern audiences have long awaited the arrival of recordings that capture Dawson's genius, and it has finally arrived with his album The Magic Bridge, a 10-song collection out on CD (Pink Triangle) and double 12" vinyl (Box Records). Dawson's music is a collision of opposites -- his hoarsely cracking voice suddenly rising to a magical soar that's been compared to Tim Buckley, John Martyn, and Richard Youngs, while his battered acoustic guitar veers from stumble to sublime in a way that can recall Sir Richard Bishop or Captain Beefheart. The listener is drawn in carefully but irresistibly from the instrumental opener "Juniper Berries Float Down the Stream," which creeps in falteringly but grows and envelops before you realize it's happened and you're gripped. By track two and the arrival of his skyward voice (not to mention its beautifully tender conclusion) and Dawson has you under his spell. (CD version on Pink Triangle).