I
first heard Johnny Dowd on a CMJ compilation CD and freaked out.
I rushed to find info on him and after little luck, ended up buying
the CD directly from him on his site:
www.johnnydowd.com . This guy is cool. He writes sick and
twisted love songs on lurid subjects like stalking a young girl,
being totally in love with a stripper, and his lament over putting
his woman in a coma while driving drunk with his hands down her
pants : "No woman’s flesh will I touch, but hers/ I
was drunk/ Three times every week I go to visit her/ And three
times every week I kiss her on the cheek/ No woman’s flesh
will I touch, but hers".
If
you like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Ween, Johnny Cash or Jon Spencer
and Tindersticks, you will love this wacky and excellent album.
Last night, I totally tripped out on the track, "Greasy Hands",
so haunting and disturbing. All his songs are modelled after old
country standards, a la Hank Williams, and you can see it clearly
in the opening Williams cover. It's classic been-done-wrong, but
with a totally twisted slant. He fills the songs with blues and
rock licks, but adds a Tom Waits-style dimension -- lots of texture
and weirdness. David Lynch listen up : you need Johnny Dowd for
your next film soundtrack.
The
album is only available from his site: www.johnnydowd.com or his
management www.kochentertainment.com
or www.insound.com,
but buy it directly from him and support an excellent artist:
$15 USD at Johnny Dowd, 111 Coy Glen Rd, Ilthaca, NY, 14850,USA
