Events

South Devon Music is delighted to have secured on tour from the USA the amazing Johnny Dowd band (including Anna Coogan and Mike Edmondson) with support from Park Doing, at the Edgemoor Hotel, Haytor Road on October 21st. His new album “Execute American Folklore” has just been released to critical acclaim and will be available on the night.

Here are some reviews:

"Imagine if Hank Williams had mutated into Captain Beefheart, acquiring a bunch of primitive electronic equipment along the way, and you'll get some idea of where Johnny Dowd is at on Execute American Folklore. . . . Gloriously deviant." — Andy Gill, The Independent (London)

"Sometimes music shouldn't be easy, and instead should be mysterious, idiosyncratic and the work of a true maverick. So we should welcome the arrival of a new Johnny Dowd album. . . . Never a man to run from the truth, if there was any justice, this guy would be a legend." — Acoustic Magazine (UK)

“From the very edge of Americana. Dark, doom-laden country. Johnny Cash meets Nick Cave reinvented by Quentin Tarantino….Texas-born maverick Johnny Dowd and his incendiary band are part of the Gothic Americana triumvirate that also includes The Handsome Family and Jim White. His predilection for black humour, the absurd and spiky machine-gun electric guitar have also drawn comparisons with Nick Cave and Tom Waits.” – UK Americana website

Johnny’s first national exposure in the UK came in 2003 in the beautiful, illuminating and highly recommended BBC Arena documentary 'Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus', a musical and sociological road trip through the ‘poor white’ southern states. It’s free to view on iPlayer: click here to view

We will not get a better chance to experience authentic, courageous, contemporary American music. Johnny's web site has some videos and full details of his UK tour.

More quotes:

• "Wonderfully warped yet remarkably accessible." - Sylvie Simmons, MOJO
• "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." - Peter Watts, Time Out, London
• "Johnny Dowd is like some self-mutating virus of American music, restlessly bringing fresh twists to old forms, absorbing influences." - The Independent
• "Dowd's got all the swagger and star quality of acts a third his age."  - The Sun