Most of us first heard Nick Dumas as a member of Special Consensus, but long before he joined them in 2015, Nick was a fixture on the bluegrass scene in the northwest. As a pre-teen, he played with his grandfather’s band, Three Generations, along with his mom and aunt. Once he became proficient on all the bluegrass instruments, he served as a co-founder of Northern Departure and North Country Bluegrass, and was an in-demand sideman in the region.
After four years with Special C, he married his sweetheart, Hana Rass, a two-time Wisconsin fiddle champ, and the two settled down to run a wedding venue, The Fiddler’s Farm, in Sturgeon Bay, WI.
But he never left the music behind, and records now as a solo artist for Skyline Records, who have a new single with Nick hitting tomorrow, a song written by Theo MacMillan and Jon Weisberger called Where Have You Been.
The song is something of a think piece, as the narrator explores the fact that his true love has been creating emotional distance in the relationship. He asks the rhetorical question in the title, and by the end we still don’t know if a resolution will be forthcoming.
Nick says that it conveys a sentiment most of us can share.
“Everyone has been in that place—where someone close to you just isn’t there like they used to be, even if they haven’t gone anywhere. This song really struck me because of how real and universal that feeling is.”
The accompanying music video finds Nick in the studio on mandolin and lead vocal cutting the track. Support comes from Hana Dumas on fiddle and harmony vocal, Daniel Thrailkill on guitar and harmony vocal, producer Will McSeveney on banjo, Michael Kilby on reso-guitar, and Andrew Knapp on bass.
Together they turn in a superb rendering of this emotion-laden song. It’s the sort of number that Alison Krauss has historically recorded, and Dumas does a fine job with it.
Have a look/listen.
Where Have You Been will be available on May 16 from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
