Johnny Dowd

Never a songwriter to play by the rules of country, blues or rock’n’roll, Dowd goes even further outside those boundaries with this concept album, divided into three opuses dealing with the un-winnable war between the sexes, as Dowd describes it. Fans of Dowd should already know not to expect easy listening but A Drunkard’s Masterpiece is particularly challenging. However, Dowd’s brutal poetic vision of the world is somewhat tempered this time out by the vocals of Kim Sherwood-Caso, with Dowd chiming in with spoken word passages. That said, Dowd and his rhythm section are at their tightest and funkiest, and the grooves alone should be enough to carry an uninitiated listener through to the end. And what is Dowd’s ultimate proclamation? Like his past albums, it’s basically that there’s a lot of shit in life that can’t be avoided and should probably just be accepted. On that basis, A Drunkard’s Masterpiece isn’t for the faint of heart but it’s a masterful melding of beat poetry, jazz and rock that few other artists would even attempt to pull off.