Johnny Dowd has dug up a rocking show from the past. Live at GrassRoots 2006, recorded in Trumansburg, NY in July 2006, catches him in full flight, with Michael Stark (keyboards, organ), Willie B (drums, bass pedals) and Kim Sherwood-Caso (vocals). He played quite a few songs that were unreleased at the time - the scary blues rocker Demons and Goats for instance would turn up on his Wake Up the Snakes album in 2010.
While most artists play it safe on stage and stick close to the studio versions, Dowd and his band love to turn things upside down and inside out. Warts and all is pretty much their modus operandi, but it works like a charm. Uncle Willie comes barreling down the tracks like a runaway train. The Good Die Young, a song that became a highlight on the Hellwood album Chainsaw Of Life is a slowed down lament that hits hard. Miracles Never Happen is dedicated to his mother, who would be surprised that her son is still kicking ass today, a music critics favourite, and a cult artist with a fervent and vocal fan base.
Drunk is skewed and lopsided, almost falling apart, with Kim Sherwood-Caso as the one who keeps it together. Performing a song with reckless abandon is what Johnny Dowd does best, but he is smart enough to take a time out after such a demanding exxcursion and let "his band within a band" Tzar (Willie B and Michael Stark) plus guest vocalist Eva Revesz do their electronic thing with Don't Drink the Water - that must have confused the hardcore folkies in attendance. Closing the show with God Created Woman, a song that was already part of the shows of his first band Neon Baptist and a stand out track of his Pictures from Life’s Other Side album he bade the audience farewell, after putting on a show that delighted his fans, converted a few and generally confusing and/or irritating the rest.
Live at GrassRoots 2006 is released on Mother Jinx Records and is available thru his website (and the merch table at his shows).
Tracks:- Poverty House
- Linloelum Floor
- Miracles Never Happen
- King of the Jews
- Uncle willie
- The Good Die Young
- Drunk
- Don't Drink the Water
- Demons and Goats
- Ding Dong
- God Created Woman
- 11/23 Ithaca, NY @ Sacred Root Kava Lounge & Tea Bar
- 12/07 Buffalo, NY @ Buffalo's Mohawk Place
HCTF review of Family Picnic.
