Spring 2007 Performers

Johnny Dowd Band
with Magic Gurney Ride
Friday, March 23

Johnny Dowd was 49 years old, a product of Texas and Oklahoma working as a moving man in upstate New York, when he released his first album, “Wrong Side of Memphis," in 1998. The wrong side indeed. The record featured a bleached-bone-dry voice left out in the open desert of his arrangements, a combination perfect for his songs about characters disconnected from time and society. “Twanging guitar unsteadily but with determination, singing audibly or not, so far down it looks like up to him," the Village Voice wrote, “Dowd operates in dank obscurity at the mangled intersection of sulk rock, swamp blues, barnyard country and catchall American self-expression. And like everybody else around there, he digs songs about violent death and scary Jesus." He had to cancel last November's show due to health problems, but he promises to be here in March.

Discography:

Johnny Dowd: Wrong Side of Memphis (Checkered Past, 1998)
Johnny Dowd: Pictures from Life's Other Side (Koch, 1999)
Johnny Dowd: Temporary Shelter (Koch, 2001)
Johnny Dowd: The Pawnbroker's Wife (Munich, 2002)
Johnny Dowd: Cemetery Shoes (Bongo Beat, 2004)
Johnny Dowd: Cruel Words (Bongo Beat, 2006)

JohnnyDowd.com