JOHNNY DOWD
''CEMETERY SHOES''
OCTOBER 12 2004
36:24
1 brother jim 03:30
2 garden of delight 02:59
3 whisper in a nag's ear 02:59
4 rest in peace 03:49
5 wedding dress 04:50
6 shipwreck 03:21
7 dear john letter 02:22
8 easter sunday 02:48
9 christmas is just another day 03:27
10 dylan's coat 03:31
11 rip off 02:45
All Tracks By Johnny Dowd
REVIEW
By Sylvie Simmons, MOJO
“Nice title, nicer sleeve—Dowd in a graveyard, debonair in sharp black suit and brogues, poking the dirt with his electric guitar. Whatever’s lurking down there appears to have been dug up and set to spooky blues, finger-popping jazz or a cheerful cluttery cacophony of beatniky sounds that wouldn’t be out of place on a Tom Waits record. Upbeat opener ‘Brother Jim,‘ the disturbing ‘Dear John Letter‘ and ‘Dylan’s Coat‘ and ‘Rest in Peace,‘ with their spoken word vocals, sound like a Waitsian wake being held on unhallowed ground. . . . Wonderfully warped yet remarkably accessible.”
REVIEW 2
By Peter Watts, Time Out London
“There’s intense and there’s Johnny Dowd. He’s Nick Cave with a hangover. Hank’s lonesome whistle spat through Waits’s grinder, with Beefheart on the side, coming on like a flu-ridden Texan undertaker singing broken folk laments for a dead dog he never cared much for anyway. In the main, this—Dowd’s sixth album since he started recording as many years ago at 50—ratchets along with trademark edge, his cracked larynx, jagged guitar and spooky organ possessed of something quite unnerving, eking out gothic tales laced with tar-black humour.”
REVIEW/AMG
by John D. Luerssen
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. If the latter's chorus, "You're carrying a coffin!," makes it a must for all future Halloween parties, the creepy, Cramps-ian white trash barnburner "Rest in Peace" is equally worthy. At times, Dowd's obsession starts to grate -- specifically on "Dear John Letter" where frenzied percussion uncomfortably meshes with his nightmare-inducing spoken word -- but often enough there is magic in the midst of his morbidity.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Richie Unterberger
Singer/songwriter Johnny Dowd was almost 50 when Wrong Side of Memphis, his debut solo record of wracked country-folk-rock tunes, drew comparisons to Nick Cave in the alternative press. To a degree, that parallel was justified, as Wrong Side of Memphis devoted itself to murder songs and tales of doomed sinners. Dowd had grown up in Texas, Memphis, and Oklahoma before operating a trucking business in upstate New York, and his songs veered close to the source of American creepiness. Yet gallows humor and Dowd's crackly voice tended to undercut any traces of self-importance, while his debut album -- dominated by his singing and guitar, yet featuring spooky dabs of organ and synthesizer that placed him outside of the rootsy Americana camp -- immediately established Dowd as an important cult figure whose weirdness seemed to be wrought from true experience. On his second album, 1999's Pictures from Life's Other Side, Dowd edged slightly away from the cliff, using a full band of musicians and a female backup singer to craft a punchier and less folk-rooted sound. His singing and lyrics, however, remained nearly as disquieting as they were the first time around. Temporary Shelter, issued in early 2001, and The Pawnbroker's Wife, from the following year, were more accessible, produced records. Cemetery Shoes followed in 2004, while A Drunkard's Masterpiece (comprised of three opuses that flaunt Dowd's patented mix of dark, mutant alt-country) arrived four years later. The following year, in 2010, Dowd released Wake Up The Snakes.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
''CEMETERY SHOES''
OCTOBER 12 2004
36:24
1 brother jim 03:30
2 garden of delight 02:59
3 whisper in a nag's ear 02:59
4 rest in peace 03:49
5 wedding dress 04:50
6 shipwreck 03:21
7 dear john letter 02:22
8 easter sunday 02:48
9 christmas is just another day 03:27
10 dylan's coat 03:31
11 rip off 02:45
All Tracks By Johnny Dowd
REVIEW
By Sylvie Simmons, MOJO
“Nice title, nicer sleeve—Dowd in a graveyard, debonair in sharp black suit and brogues, poking the dirt with his electric guitar. Whatever’s lurking down there appears to have been dug up and set to spooky blues, finger-popping jazz or a cheerful cluttery cacophony of beatniky sounds that wouldn’t be out of place on a Tom Waits record. Upbeat opener ‘Brother Jim,‘ the disturbing ‘Dear John Letter‘ and ‘Dylan’s Coat‘ and ‘Rest in Peace,‘ with their spoken word vocals, sound like a Waitsian wake being held on unhallowed ground. . . . Wonderfully warped yet remarkably accessible.”
REVIEW 2
By Peter Watts, Time Out London
“There’s intense and there’s Johnny Dowd. He’s Nick Cave with a hangover. Hank’s lonesome whistle spat through Waits’s grinder, with Beefheart on the side, coming on like a flu-ridden Texan undertaker singing broken folk laments for a dead dog he never cared much for anyway. In the main, this—Dowd’s sixth album since he started recording as many years ago at 50—ratchets along with trademark edge, his cracked larynx, jagged guitar and spooky organ possessed of something quite unnerving, eking out gothic tales laced with tar-black humour.”
REVIEW/AMG
by John D. Luerssen
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. If the latter's chorus, "You're carrying a coffin!," makes it a must for all future Halloween parties, the creepy, Cramps-ian white trash barnburner "Rest in Peace" is equally worthy. At times, Dowd's obsession starts to grate -- specifically on "Dear John Letter" where frenzied percussion uncomfortably meshes with his nightmare-inducing spoken word -- but often enough there is magic in the midst of his morbidity.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Richie Unterberger
Singer/songwriter Johnny Dowd was almost 50 when Wrong Side of Memphis, his debut solo record of wracked country-folk-rock tunes, drew comparisons to Nick Cave in the alternative press. To a degree, that parallel was justified, as Wrong Side of Memphis devoted itself to murder songs and tales of doomed sinners. Dowd had grown up in Texas, Memphis, and Oklahoma before operating a trucking business in upstate New York, and his songs veered close to the source of American creepiness. Yet gallows humor and Dowd's crackly voice tended to undercut any traces of self-importance, while his debut album -- dominated by his singing and guitar, yet featuring spooky dabs of organ and synthesizer that placed him outside of the rootsy Americana camp -- immediately established Dowd as an important cult figure whose weirdness seemed to be wrought from true experience. On his second album, 1999's Pictures from Life's Other Side, Dowd edged slightly away from the cliff, using a full band of musicians and a female backup singer to craft a punchier and less folk-rooted sound. His singing and lyrics, however, remained nearly as disquieting as they were the first time around. Temporary Shelter, issued in early 2001, and The Pawnbroker's Wife, from the following year, were more accessible, produced records. Cemetery Shoes followed in 2004, while A Drunkard's Masterpiece (comprised of three opuses that flaunt Dowd's patented mix of dark, mutant alt-country) arrived four years later. The following year, in 2010, Dowd released Wake Up The Snakes.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
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