[2][3] Dawson attended Berklee School of Music and began to work together with Jesse Zubot as the Spirit Merchants, which involved had a constantly changing rhythm section.
In order to have their material released, Dawson set up his own label, Black Hen.
[2] The duo ceased to function as Dawson preferred to focus on his production work and reduce his travel commitments and Zubot wanted to stretch out musically into other genres as well as concentrate on album production and film scoring.
Andrew Downing joined Zubot and Dawson as a double bass player.
The group also occasionally features musical friends such as Bob Brozman and Kelly Joe Phelps.