CD $17.08

Johnny Dowd presents a curious mixture of the raw and the sophisticated on his sixth album, Cruel Words. His band, which features keyboard player Michael Starks and drummer Brian Wilson in addition to his own guitar work, plays rudimentary blues-rock arrangements with harsh, angular rhythms in a sort of John Lee Hooker-meets-Devo sound, occasionally veering toward heavy metal, and he sings in a gruff voice with a strong rural accent. But his lyrics and the subject matter of his songs   [ read more ]

CD $17.08

Despite Johnny Dowd's fixation with death, the 56-year old guitarist has inexplicable appeal on his fifth album, Cemetary Shoes. Beneath all of the bloodstained clothes is a man with superb axe prowess and a Nick Cave-meets-Tom Waits-meets-Tom Verlaine-vocal approach. "Brother Jim" is an offbeat, twangy rock/blues concoction that's as delightfully fun as it is peculiar, "Garden of Delight" is a blistering stomper and "Whisper in a Nag's Ear" is an eerie jazz-tinged offering.   [ read more ]

CD $15.18

If there was even the tiniest bit of comfort to be wrung from Johnny Dowd's singularly disturbing debut album, Wrong Side of Memphis, it was that the record's stark, homespun tales of murder, misery, and malice seemed light years removed from reality, evoking a backwoods dementia so completely over the top it often threatened to veer into the ridiculous. Pictures from Life's Other Side ups the ante considerably: Complete with full-band backing, crisp production, and a broader musical spectrum, the    [ read more ]

CD $11.38