Although each of its members calls the UK home, the band that refers to itself as Paul Armer & The Dawn Chorus can’t claim any one place in particular as its individual point of origin.
“That’s a difficult question,” Armer replied asked where they individually call home. “We all hail from different parts of the United Kingdom. I’m from Saltash, Cornwall, but most of the time I live nomadically from my camper van so I can gig more easily around the country. Chris Lord was born and raised in Croydon, South London, and he lives there now after having briefly lived in Southampton. Pete Thomas is from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, but currently lives in Fulham, West London. Noel Dashwood probably has the most interesting story, in that he was born in the UK, but moved to the South Pacific island of Rarotonga as a child. He lived there for eight years before moving back to the UK. He now resides in Norwich. It’d be hard to name just one place the band calls home, so home is wherever we’re all playing music!”
With Armer on guitar, lead vocals and songwriting duties, Lord on banjo and harmony vocals, Dashwood on dobro and harmony vocals, and Thomas on double bass, the cohesion is never in doubt. The group came together after forming a scratch band at a bluegrass festival and winning first place in the band competition. They had variously met one other prior at jams and festivals, with Lord and Thomas having played together for over ten years in another UK bluegrass band, The Vanguards.
“Broadly speaking, we play bluegrass, but it’s hard to know where to place ourselves on the traditional/progressive scale,” Armer suggests. “Individually, we probably have quite traditional influences, but we all share a love of making things our own and expressing our individuality. All the music on our new EP, Heartaches and Mistakes, is original and was written by me. Thematically, these tread familiar territory, with stories of lost love, loneliness, and introspection, but each comes from the viewpoint of someone who’s grown up with a different culture to that found in the American South. It’s bluegrass, but with a British slant, perhaps.”
Armer says his guitar playing was inspired byTony Rice and Billy Strings, but he adds that he’s also a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and Jason Isbell as far as songwriting. He says Lord’s banjo playing mixes traditional and progressive styles, with both Ralph Stanley and Béla Fleck being primary influences. He notes that Dashwood’s dobro playing bears traces of Mike Auldridge and Sally Van Meter, especially the latter as far as the tone. “Pete is accomplished in several styles on bass,” Armer adds. “But for bluegrass, his influences include Mark Schatz and Edgar Meyer.”
Because the band is still relatively new, they haven’t had the opportunity to play in as many places as they’d like. “Still, we have had some great gigs,” Armer says. “This year, we played at Battlefield Bluegrass Festival — the festival where we formed in 2024 — as well as Grass Roots Grazin’ festival, and twice at London’s famous Green Note. We still have more lined up before 2026, including Ebenezer’s in Crewe, followed by a string of gigs in that area. We’re also hoping that 2026 brings more opportunities to play major festivals. It’s confirmed that we’ll be playing at Didmarton Bluegrass Festival, the UK’s largest bluegrass festival, but we also hope to branch out to larger folk and Americana festivals, and perhaps some European festivals once we’ve become a bit more established.”
In addition, the band will be embarking on a major UK tour supporting Gangstagrass, running from November 19-30. Lord himself will also be taking on banjo duties for Gangstagrass, having previously played with them last year in Montelago, Italy and Shrewsbury, UK, and this year, at WOMEX in Finland. “He’ll be doubly busy,” Armer remarked.
In the meantime, Armer says the reaction they’ve received back home has been very positive. “We’ve been selling out ticketed shows and people have been very enthusiastic both during and after gigs,” he notes. “Our first review, in the British Bluegrass News magazine, was positive, and we also received funding from the British Bluegrass Music Association to help with production for our EP. You have to have the EP finished and evaluated before receiving the funding, so it felt like a nice acknowledgement that we’re on the right path when it comes to representing bluegrass in the UK.”
The band plays a mix of original material and traditional tunes, but Armer says that as far as the future is concerned, they plan to play more of their own songs. He said he considers himself an accomplished songwriter, having played solo on the singer-songwriter circuit for several years. “The same can be said for Noel, who has performed with several other great musicians and has an excellent solo record out under his own name,” he noted. “As for covers, we like to pick things that we all like, but which can also showcase our individual talents. A number we’ve played a lot recently, Cold Sheets of Rain, always goes down well, as it gives us an opportunity to sing trio harmonies and to take solos over a slightly unorthodox chord progression. Similarly, we’ve been playing Béla Fleck’s Boulderdash, which allows all of us to really demonstrate our instrumental improvisation chops.”
Asked why he thinks bluegrass enjoys such broad popularity, Armer replied, “It’d be easy to say that it’s because bluegrass covers universally understood topics that we can all relate to, but we think it’s even simpler than that. When people heard Earl Scruggs for the first time, it was exciting! It’s simultaneously simple, with simple chord progressions and memorable, easy-to-hum melodies, but also complex, with virtuosic solos and stunning harmonies. There are multiple layers that can appeal to lots of different people, regardless of where they’re coming from.”
Paul Armer & Dawn Chorus’ new EP Heartaches and Mistakes will be available on all streaming services and will be available to buy from the website here.
