Dowd, Johnny
From Astro-Databank
| Name |
| ||
| born on | 29 March 1948 at 03:09 (= 03:09 AM ) | ||
| Place | Fort Worth TX, USA, 32n43, 97w19 | ||
| Timezone | CST h6w (is standard time) | ||
| Data source |
| ||
| Astrology data |   08°35'   03°28 Asc. 00°54'
|
Biography
American self-taught songwriter, guitar player, and vocalist, he has released several CDs and tours widely throughout the US and Europe.
He grew up in a family where he was the only boy among five sisters whom he calls "influential." With his mother's instruction, he learned to dance when his parents bought him a record player and a Ray Coniff album. He got his first guitar in 1956 but didn't do much with it. By 1981, however, he and his friend started a moving company and a band, which they called "The Jokers." In 1998 he started another band. By 1999, he released his first album "Wrong Side of Memphis" and he put together yet another band, this time with Brian Wilson, Mike Edmondson and Kim Sherwood-Caso. The group began to tour through Europe and the US. In 1999 the group released another album "Pictures from Life's Other Side."
from all music guide:
Johnny Dowd was almost 50 when Wrong Side of Memphis, his record of wracked
country-folk-rock tunes, drew comparisons to Nick Cave in the alternative
press. To a degree, the parallel is justified. Wrong Side of Memphis, after
all, is devoted in large part to murder songs and tales of doomed sinners,
and suffused with outlaw paranoia. Yet Dowd is — as someone who grew up in
Texas, Memphis, and Oklahoma, and now runs a trucking business in upstate
New York — someone who's genuinely closer to the source of American
creepiness. He's also not so damn serious about it all; aside from the
gallows humor permeating much of his work, his crackly voice tends to
undercut any traces of self-importance. Dowd's sound is dominated by his
singing and guitar, yet spooky dabs of organ and synthesizer place him
outside of the rootsy Americana camp. His debut immediately established him
as an important cult figure whose weirdness seemed to be wrought from true
experience, and not the result of some phony pose. On his second album,
1999's Pictures From Life's Other Side, Dowd edged slightly away from the
edge, 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 was issued in early 2001.
Events
- Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released 1998 (first album)
Source Notes
Sy Scholfield quotes from the website of astrologer Jonathan Dunn (http://ephemeral.info/exh/000001.shtml) on which appears a copy of an email from
Dowd's agent stating: "To answer Jonathan Dunn's question: Johnny was born
at 3:09 AM on March 29, 1948. Though it was actually Monday morning (per your research), it probably seemed to be late Easter night to everyone involved."
Categories
- Vocation : Entertain/Music : Group/ Duo
