Pictures From Life's Other Side

Johnny Dowd - Pictures From Life's Other Side

Pictures From Life's Other Side
Our Price: $70.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.61 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Listen soundtracks from this album



(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

Music CD Cover

Artist: Johnny Dowd
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-08-17
Music Label: Koch Records
Soundtracks:
  1. Picture from Life's Other Side
  2. Worried Mind
  3. Ballad of Lonnie Wolf
  4. Hope You Don't Mind
  5. God Created Woman
  6. Blood Evidence
  7. The Girl Who Made Me Sick
  8. Greasy Hands
  9. Vietnam
  10. Just Because
  11. No Woman's Flesh But Hers
  12. Bad Memories
  13. Mystery Woman
  14. Butcher's Son
  15. Wish I'd Been Honest

Free Music Notes for Pictures From Life's Other Side

Free Music Review: Songs For Swingin' (From A Noose) Lovers!
Hit: 5 Stars

The first time I listened to this cd I did not give it the respect it deserved. I was doing various chores around my apartment, only half-listening to what was coming out of the speakers. After a few songs I shrugged it off as one I'd bought out of curiousity and put on another cd. A couple of months later I picked up Bloodshot's 5 year anniversary collection and was knocked all around the room by his duet with Kim Sherwood Caso on Hell or High Water. I decided to give Pictures From Life's Other Side another listen. It soom became clear what an idiot I had been to dismiss it as I had done. This time the discovery of a major artist with his own unique interpretation of rural American music rang joyously in my ears.

Dowd seems to draw a lot of comparisons to Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. In a way these are apt comparisons, especially Waits. But more than anything they are meant to indicate that the lesser known Dowd's work is equal to that of some our most respected singer/songwriters who are famous for dealing explicitly with dark themes. But where Cave, Cohen and Waits have established original and justly celebrated voices for themselves over decades of achievement, Dowd entered the music business with his first album in 1997 at the age of fifty. Making up for lost time, Dowd has recently released his fourth album, The Pawnbroker's Wife, while gaining a devoted following, touring and appearing on such worthwhile projects as the Bloodshot double cd as well as the recent Lee Hazelwood tribute album.

Pictures From Life's Other Side kicks off with the title track, perhaps the most creative reinterpretation of a Hank Williams, Sr. song ever released. It begins with Dowd as a sort of stoned carny inviting you over to his tent and as soon as you've settled into this landscape it veers off into an absolutely scorching rocker. At no point does this ever sound like a starched, reverent reading of a classic from our beloved Hank...and yet it captures his haunted spirit better than all but the great man's own recordings.

The one-two punch of I Hope You Don't Mind & God Created Woman are also standout tracks that serve as a perfect blueprint for Dowd's take on romance. The former is a sinsiter rewrite of the blues staple Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl. Except that this time all of the bluster has been violently stripped away and we are left in the profoundly uneasy company of an aged man who states his obsession with a child in the scariest terms imagineable.

God Created Woman is, love gone wrong subject matter aside, a far more gleeful affair. Kim Sherwood Caso's contributions to Dowd's music simply cannot be overstated. Her voice compliments his world view to a tee while providing a welcome counterbalance at the same time. Here she sings a desperate plea for her lover to "meet me in the parking lot/up on level three/there's something I must show you/there's something you've just got to see." These lines, as sung by Caso, are filled with an ache so unfathomable that it has folded into a detached, narcotic drone and listening to it gives you a palpable sense of danger. The person who is singing this is capable of awful things.

Another revelatory track is the spoken word performance of No Woman's Flesh But Hers. All I can say is that I honestly thought I was going to have to sleep under my bed with the lights on after hearing this the first few times. No song has ever scared me as badly. I loved it!

Pictures From Life's Other Side isn't as consistent as Temporary Shelter (my favorite) or as varied as The Pawnbroker's Wife but it is an important step in the development of one of the most interesting and talented artists to emerge on the music scene in the past ten years. You may have to do some work to eventually sink into his world, but it is an incredibly rewarding adventure I promise you!

Alternative Rock Music CDs

Music Genres
Top music charts in Alternative Rock Music CDs
Maniacal Laughter ImageBouncing Souls - Maniacal Laughter
Release date: 1996-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $30.00
Parallel Lines ImageBlondie - Parallel Lines
Release date: 1994-07-29; Music CD
Best price: $397.77
L.A. Woman ImageDoors - L.A. Woman
Release date: 1993-04-09; Music CD
Best price: $199.99
Phallus Dei ImageAmon Duul - Phallus Dei
Release date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Price in other shops: $18.98
Melrose ImageTangerine Dream - Melrose
Release date: 1990-10-02; Music CD
Best price: $74.98
Private Music of Tangerine Dream ImageTangerine Dream - Private Music of Tangerine Dream
Release date: 1992-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $9.50
Price in other shops: $11.98
Ska Explosion [VHS] ImageSka Explosion [VHS]
Cleopatra; Release date: 1995-02-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops: $16.98
Little Earthquakes [VHS] ImageLittle Earthquakes [VHS]
Atlantic / Wea; Release date: 1992-11-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops: $16.98
Exile ImageExile
by Geoffrey Oryema
Music CD
Best price: $4.95
Louder Than Live [VHS] ImageSoundgarden - Louder Than Live [VHS]
A&M Video; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: $14.98
Top Rated Albums
The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams ImageThe Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
Release date: 2011-10-04; Music CD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $11.98
Blessed ImageLucinda Williams - Blessed
Release date: 2011-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $12.17
Price in other shops: $17.99
Bad As Me ImageTom Waits - Bad As Me
Release date: 2011-10-24; Music CD
Best price: $7.39
Price in other shops: $17.98
Through the Trees ImageHandsome Family - Through the Trees
Release date: 1998-01-26; Music CD
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops: $12.98
Wake Up the Snakes ImageJohnny Dowd - Wake Up the Snakes
Release date: 2010-06-22; Music CD
Best price: $12.62
Price in other shops: $24.49
Pawnbroker's Wife ImageJohnny Dowd - Pawnbroker's Wife
Release date: 2002-10-22; Music CD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $15.98
A Drunkard's Masterpiece ImageJohnny Dowd - A Drunkard's Masterpiece
Release date: 2008-05-20; Music CD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $16.99
Temporary Shelter ImageJohnny Dowd - Temporary Shelter
Release date: 2001-02-13; Music CD
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops: $11.98
Wrong Side of Memphis ImageJohnny Dowd - Wrong Side of Memphis
Release date: 1998-02-11; Music CD
Best price: $9.30
Price in other shops: $14.97
Cruel Words ImageJohnny Dowd - Cruel Words
Release date: 2006-07-11; Music CD
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops: $16.99
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles