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Artist
Hellwood
12+ albums
Alt-countrysouthern gothicamericanapsychobillyRating 6 stars - Reasonable
about
Hellwood is Johnny Dowd, Jim White, and Willie B; three distinct songwriter/musicians brought together by years of friendship, mutual respect, and camaraderie. You wouldn't want to visit Hellwood, a place bereft of hope and spiritual sustenance whose population, the CD cover claims, numbers only three: melancholy observers of the underside of the American Dream Jim White and Johnny Dowd, and the latter's drummer, Willie B. Chainsaw of Life is replete with psycho-tableaux of life's losers - which home territory for White and Dowd, with the latter acknowledging his pessimistic tendencies in "Thomas Dorsey", comparing the gospel songwriter's inspirational work with his own output. "I sing songs of lust and depravity," he apologises, "That's the only kind of song that comes out of me." But there's an abundant musical enthusiasm about their collaboration, ranging from mordant alt.country, punk-blues and Beefheartian marimba-rock to the wan combination of banjo and melodica that underscores White's admission, in the concluding "Dream On", that "I might be a dreamer/But I'm all dreamed out." Though not, on this showing, entirely free of nightmares. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
