hypersongs

Bonnie Dobson

A Toronto folk singer and guitarist who wrote "Morning Dew" at 20, recorded it live at Gerde's Folk City in 1962, and watched it become a standard for the Grateful Dead, Jeff Beck, Lulu and Robert Plant.

Toronto and New York

Bonnie Dobson was born in Toronto on November 13, 1940. Her father was a union organizer and opera lover, and her early influences were Paul Robeson and the Weavers. She began singing folk songs in her early teens, encouraged by Pete Seeger, and the Canadian Encyclopedia compares her clear soprano to Joan Baez's and Carolyn Hester's. She toured the US from 1960, lived in Chicago from 1962 to 1964 and in New York from 1964 to 1965, played Gerde's Folk City, the Gaslight and the Bitter End, and toured with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Journalists often place her in Yorkville, but she was already a US folk name while Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were emerging.

Bonnie Dobson Sings 'She's Like a Swallow' and Other Folk Songs (Prestige International) came out in 1961, then Dear Companion (1962) and Bonnie Dobson at Folk City (1962, live), produced by Kenny Goldstein and recorded over three nights. For the Love of Him (Mercury, 1964), a self-titled album on RCA Victor (1969, with "I Got Stung" at number 82 on the Canadian pop chart) and Good Morning Rain (1970) followed.

London

She made her London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on November 3, 1969 and moved to England in 1970, though Wikipedia dates it to 1969. She recorded for Argo in 1972 and Polydor in 1976 and later worked as administrator of the philosophy department at Birkbeck College in the University of London, retiring in the 1980s. Her last concert before the break was in Chicago in 1989, by her 1993 account.

She returned to the stage in 2007 at Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown Festival, played a Bert Jansch memorial in 2013 and joined Robert Plant at the Royal Festival Hall in December 2013. Take Me for a Walk in the Morning Dew (Hornbeam, 2014) was called a triumph by Sing Out. She received a Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame award for "Morning Dew", presented by Gordon Lightfoot, in 2018. Dreams, with The Hanging Stars, came out on Loose on July 11, 2025, and The Arts Desk gave it five stars. A book by John Einarson with Dobson is listed for 2026.

Albums

  • Bonnie Dobson at Folk City 1962 · live · Prestige International

    A live album recorded over three nights, which includes her version of "Morning Dew".

Songs

  • Morning Dew Bonnie Dobson at Folk City · 1962

    A song about the last two people alive after a nuclear catastrophe, first sung at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1961 and covered more than seventy times.

Sources

  1. Bonnie Dobson, Wikipedia
  2. Bonnie Dobson, The Canadian Encyclopedia
  3. Bonnie Dobson interview, Rhythms
  4. Bonnie Dobson: Take Me for a Walk in the Morning Dew, Sing Out (2014)