boffo's Full Review: Temporary Shelter by Johnny Dowd
This is the third album by "Country" singer Johnny Dowd. At least country is what he usually get's classified as, but his music has very few similarities with standard country.
Dowd's story is a curious one. He was born in texas but moved to Itacha, New York. There he dreamed of becoming a rock musician and played with several rock bands but never managed to secure a recording deal. Eventually he settled down and got married and had children. He started a moving company to support himself.
Then at the age of 49 he recorded a demo casette entitled Wrong Side Of Memphis using only a cheap syntheziser and drum machine and guitars. The result was a crude, dark country and blues record from mars. What was even weirder was that this casette secured him a recording deal.
Now at his third record Dowd has assembled a backing band consisting of of a guy who used to work at his moving firm, Brian Wilson on drums, Wilsons friend Justin Asher on Keyboards and longtime collaborator Kim Sherwood-Caso as backing vocalist.
Thanks to his backing group his music has diversified and evolved but it remains a strange sound indeed. While the music is based in country and blues it's so mutated as to be hardly recognisable. Various electronic effects are used including synthesized bleeps and the odd drum loop.
But perhaps most notable is Dowd's voice. If you want to be blunt: The man can't sing. His voice sounds like a nasty parody of the most nasal and out of tune country singer you've ever heard. He sings with the kind of Texas accent possesed by the psycho in Texas set thriller, a psycho preferably played by Dennis Hopper. He often sounds really demented and evil and I can't help love it, but that's just me I guess...
The music on this album is fairly varied. with some slow mournful, suicidal ballads as well as some pounding drum-heavy songs. There are no straight country songs here, though his second album Pictures from life's other side had a few. Instead most of the record sound like countryish rock with a guest playing kraftwerk member or something.
Dowd's lyrics are another thing that has pinpointed him as a weird artist. Though he himself is happily married his songs deal exclusivley with darker issues. Lost love, suicides, murderers, pedophiles and so on...
Some of the highlights on the record are:
Vengeance is mine:
A song about a woman who's man is murdered by his boss who wants her for himself. Though she prays for vengeance. The song has a driving drum beat. a creepy synthezised bass line. The vocals are sung togteher by dowd and Sherwood-Caso.
Big Wave:
Another pounding drum beat along with some nice surf-style minor guitar melodies. A song on wich a man upon his death bed tells us of his desire to surf the perfect wave. I belive the big wave is used as a metaphor for the characters death.
Hell or high water:
a slow song with some blues like guitar riffs. It tells the tale of a convinience marriage lacking love as stated by the chorus:
If that's not love it'll have to do
hell or high water it's just me and you
Golden Rule:
The rockiest song on the album. A man tries to convince a woman to leave everything her husband and her baby, before howling at her:
Look into a mirror, Tell me what you see
no matter what you've been told, you ain't no better than me!.
a great song
Sky above, mud below
a song with a echo-heavy military-style drum beat. A man born by an unmarried woman tells his tale of being raised by his unloving uncle and aunt. The chorus is sung by Sherwood-caso in a clear beautiful voice:
Spare the rod, spoil the child
You must destroy everything
that might grow up to be free and wild
This album dosen't quite get five stars because i think some of the slower numbers feel a bit overlong. otherwise I feel it's great album with some really great songs. But if you're gonna learn to appreciate this album you'll have to get used to his singing voice and the odd music. Check out the official and only homepage www.johnnydowd.com where sound samples are available. It is quite interesting but certainly not for everyone.
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