JOHN DAWSON READ: An English musician and songwriter

Lyrical melodies and melodic lyrics. Songs of life, about life, from a lifetime of writing.

John ‘s first album ‘A Friend of Mine is Going Blind’ (Chrysalis records 1975) was dedicated to John’s friend and mentor Graham and the title track was written about him. This song has lived in the hearts of many many people from that day to this. This song has been covered by several artists including Nana Mouskouri but it is John’s version which kept the album in the American charts for so many months, even topping the charts in some States.

‘Read On’ followed a year after. Once again it was America who took this album to her heart. Still today people are contacting us saying they still have their original vinyl LP of ‘Read On’ which takes pride of place in their collection. One song on this album ‘Such is the Mystery’ was chosen by Cliff Richard to feature on his ‘I’m Nearly Famous’ album and in his live tours.

During the ‘missing years’ John concentrated on being a father to Zoe and Christopher, building a marketing business and opening a ‘Michelin Star’ restaurant, whilst still dipping his toes into the music from time to time... in 1986 John won ‘Best UK Composer’ award at the international Cavan Song Festival in Ireland. He also won gold at both the Istanbul Song Festival and the Sopot Song Festivall in Poland, both in the early 80’s.

But generally all was quiet until in 2005 when someone mentioned that Michael Johnson, a brilliant American ballad singer, had covered ‘A Friend of Mine’ on his website and that people were leaving messages to find out if John was still alive and kicking... and that’s when it all started again.

Through the wonders of the internet John’s music is once again being listened to all over the world. John is back writing as ever, with two CDs released since then and another on the way - and even taking his guitar out for the occasional excursion to a local bar or café just to keep those music juices flowing.