Temporary Shelter

If there are any contemporary songwriters who look deeper into the dark and troubling underside American life than Johnny Dowd, I'm not sure anyone has the courage to listen to their work. Dowd's music comes from a place that's at once singularly disturbing and easy to recognize, charting a landscape of murder, obsession, misguided love, guilt, fear, and betrayal that's as common, as violent, and as familiar as the morning newspaper. Dowd's first album, Wrong Side of Memphis, was a stark, blunt homemade affair, while the follow-up, Pictures From Life's Other Side, was a (relatively) high-fidelity companion piece that captured the Dock Boggs-meets-Pere Ubu sound of Dowd's touring band (Justin Asher on keyboards, Brian Wilson on drums and bass pedals, and Kim Sherwood-Caso on vocals). Temporary Shelter, however, finds Johnny Dowd displaying his surest hand in the record-making process to date; while Dowd's production is simple and uncluttered, he and his band have also learned how to layer their sheets of sound in the studio, and while the album still possesses the jarring intimacy of Dowd's live shows, there's also a subtlety and broader sonic palette that brings the details of this music into sharper and more telling focus. And while Dowd is obviously in charge, Temporary Shelter makes it clear this is the work of a real band; here, Johnny is willing to ease back his sturdy blues-based guitar leads to make more room for Asher and Wilson, and he even turns the lead vocal on "Death Comes Knocking" over to Sherwood-Caso. The sinister, dreamlike sound of Temporary Shelter provides the perfect backdrop for this cycle of songs about the troubling legacies of childhood and (dysfunctional) family life; it sounds like Dowd's most personal collection to date, and while the images are often disturbing, the effect isn't morbid -- these songs are not about wallowing in the dark side of life, but about one man's struggle through his heart and soul to escape the demons that have crippled him. As you've surely guessed by now, Temporary Shelter isn't for everyone, but while it's strong meat, it's also rich and deeply satisfying if you have an adventurous taste. ~ Mark Deming|