Scott Dunbar is a one-man band who performs his songs on the street corners of Montreal with an acoustic guitar and an accordion. He recorded his entire 24-track album (of which he wrote all but one song) in one week. He doesn’t rely on a single genre, and therefore does not cater to an exclusive audience. He obliterates the predictability of mainstream music and I want to hug him for it. His third album Two Years to Live is unpolished, whimsical, satirical, admirably transparent at times and philosophically enigmatic at others. Many songs are concerned with corporations and how our politicians operate, such as Ain’t Mama and I’m Dick Cheney, while Tuning Fork is the most genuinely sweet love song I have heard in years. It is incredibly refreshing to hear a musician doing something that comments on our culture’s problems rather than contributes to them.

Published in Volume 65, Number 7 of The Uniter (October 14, 2010)