You wonder if there might have been a mistake on his birth certificate. The way this guy plays guitar, his given name should have been Demon instead of Damon Fowler. The fiery guitarist’s slide, dobro and lap steel riffs have been snapping heads around since his ’99 debut, Riverview Drive, produced and played on by legendary rocker Rick Derringer.
But as he has proved with a string of albums for Blind Pig beginning with ’09’s Sugar Shack, Fowler doesn’t need any help getting his message across. A blend of sacred steel, backwater blues and howling, greasy swamp rock, Fowler’s music is a primal, atavistic sound that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. His solo gigs with his skin tight power trio have converted rooms full of strangers into a loyal congregation who now attend his services regularly, and his exposure as half of the twin guitar attack (with J.P. Soars) of the newly convened blues supergroup Southern Hospitality and their March 2013 release Easy Livin’ has given him evangelical status among the faithful.
His latest solo release, Sounds of Home, out Jan 21 on Blind Pig, is a continuation of his journey into the swampy blues church doctrines he enforces with his ’50s Harmony H44 Stratotone and red Les Paul classic guitars. Tab Benoit jumps in with some pedal steel on “Do It For the Love” and throws in some acoustic backing on three additional tracks, but the rest is all Fowler, and that’s all you need.
The only other guest is Monk Boudreaux, Big Chief of the Mardi Gras Indian tribe The Golden Eagles. On the title track, Fowler sets the homeland scene(“skeeters humming like a mower cuttin’ weeds”) before bringing in the Chief to offer a soulful low-key, Tony Joe White style vocalization of swamp love as Fowler wrings out licks behind him like barbed wire stretched to the breaking point.
Elvis Costello’s “Allison” gets a country soul makeover, Fowler’s hoarse rasp the perfect vehicle for this broken-hearted dirge, his Allman-esque guitar solo squirting out wire wrapped tears.
“TV Mama” is not the Joe Turner vehicle, but the property of Johnny Winter. Winter’s solo version is a back porch stomper with only a thudding footprint for percussion. Fowler’s is a group effort,his electrifried slide guitar moaning and slithering along in Winter’s tracks.
“I Shall Not Be Moved” glides along at a fast shuffle, Fowler’s lap steel chiming like a church bell, clanging out country go-to-meeting gospel.
Fowler is that rare artist whose studio recordings pack as much of a wallop as his live shows. This one will pin your ears back and track swamp fonk all over the place. But these tracks are ones you’ll want to keep imbedded underfoot and in your head, bigfoot swamp prints from a Demon you’ll welcome in your house anytime.
Grant Britt
(Photo by Grant Britt)
