CQAF 2025

“I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True – Songs, Stories and Surprises”

Steve Wynn, leader and founder of the Dream Syndicate, will be touring the UK in May in support of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, his debut book, a memoir for Jawbone Press as well as Make It Right, his first solo album since 2010.

The book details the winding path from growing up a music fan and pre-teen bandleader in Los Angeles through the formation and ultimate dissolution of the Dream Syndicate at the end of their first era in 1988.

There are stops along the way for tales of cross-country greyhound trips to track down Alex Chilton to wild, off-the-rails tours with U2 and R.E.M. and the epic heart-of-darkness making of the band’s controversial second album Medicine Show and plenty more.

The album is a similarly, reflective and intimately revealing collection, written and recorded in tandem with the writing of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True.

Wynn promises a one-man show blending songs from and inspired by the book along with a narrative structure of readings from the book and storytelling, adjunctly extrapolated from those passages.

Fans can expect a selection of evergreens and rarities from the Dream Syndicate’s 80’s catalogue along with illuminating covers and reflective numbers from the new album as well, all adding up to one tall tale of a past revisited.

Steve says, “I don’t see this show as a stodgy reading or as a random selection of songs but rather a tiny play of sorts, a way of giving a flesh and blood companion to the book. I’m looking for that magic place where, say, Lenny Bruce and Spaulding Grey and Ray Davies and Bob Dylan and maybe Hedwig might meet in a dimly lit cabaret on the back streets of Hollywood. I’ve never done this kind of show before but if I can hit all those markers, I’ll be happy.”

Steve Wynn will be selling and signing copies of I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True (book) and Make It Right (CD/LP) after every show.

This show is strictly for audiences aged 18 and over.

If you have access needs, feel free to email Aoife at aoife@cqaf.com for more info—we’re happy to help!