Rock
June, 1998
The music of Johnny Dowd comes from a dark corner of the heart. At the age of 49, the singer-songwriter has released his first record, Wrong Side of Memphis (Checkered Past Records, 3940 N. Francisco, Chicago, IL 60618). It's a chilling, get-right-with-God collection of 15 songs about murder, sin and salvation. He mixes a rural blues drawl with stark Hank Williams idioms and doesn't mince words. Dowd also has a deep appreciation of the absurd, as in First There Was, a song about an unemployed ma...
