Description
Nazarene Crying Towel is the sixth studio album by the American americana/pop combo Lost Dogs, released on BEC Recordings in 2003, a division of Tooth & Nail Records. Classic folk/country reminiscent of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Tom Petty, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young…no gimmicks, no special effects.
There are so many wonderful moments on this album, like the Terry Taylor-led «Be My Hiding Place» with its delicate harmonies, the Derri Daugherty-fronted acoustic «Jesus On The Shore» with its memorable (“be free brethren”) chorus and Mike Roe’s delightful country rock contributions. As good as any americana album Mojo swoon over, this album deserves wide exposure. Nazarene Crying Towel (the strange title explained in a fascinating narrative sleevenote) is quiet, contemplative, maudlin, confessional, and ultimately very inspiring and satisfying – simply a twelve song gem featuring bluesy romps, gospel stomps, acoustic stirrings and the harmonies that make the angels weep.
Wonderful, brilliant, magnificent, superb! I think that I like this album. Nazarene Crying Towel is the latest offering from one of the best bands around today. Taylor, Roe & Daugherty have created a sonic masterpiece that is without a doubt the best album this band has ever done. Along for the ride this time out are: Tim Chandler on bass, Dennis Holt on drums, Steve Hindalong on percussion and Phil Madeira on piano, dobro, lap steel, harmonium and percussion. For those who are unfamiliar with Mr. Holt’s skills on the drums check out any of the old AD albums or if you can find them, anything by the Wall Brothers Band. Am I dating myself? Eight of the twelve songs are Taylor compositions while we are treated to two each by Taylor/Roe and Roe/Daugherty.
This album takes on a good time country feel which is a natural progression from Gift Horse and Real Men Cry. Vocally the group has never sounded better, The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Bros. would be proud of these guys. This album contains some of the best singing separately and together that I have ever heard from these guys. When they do their trademark trade off vocals it is great but when they are harmonizing such as on tunes like «Home Again» or «Darkest Night» it is sheer magic.
The lyrics have a down to earth feel to them that is a perfect blend with the tunes that we are experiencing here. “In through the dark, into His heart, deep into deep we go under / The only Beloved, the loved of the loved, how can we speak of the wonder.” «Darkest Night» is possibly the prettiest song that Terry Taylor has ever written. Or this from «Come Down Here», “I am a lonely sinning soul, come down here, won’t you come down here / Sipping my supper from an empty bowl, if you come down here, you can fill me full.” Even though this is a short project coming in at just under thirty five minutes, there is not a second of wasted space. This is the Dogs at their very best!!! [Chris MacIntosh, The Phantom Tollbooth, 4/13/2003]
Can you endure the violent emotions of other believers? Does real humanity scare and frighten you, as if you are a child, as if you are so comfortable with your worldly trappings your religious beliefs have never been tested? What do you have to project on to what you don’t understand or despise to be able to socially or psychologically reject it? What sort of purity are you really being called to – do you know? Could you just be spiritually immature, a mere *runt* in belief, or has your heart been calloused by its own sin? “Worry was the way she loved,” singer/songwriter Terry Taylor says of his late grandmother, a woman with intense faith and a crackling mind who knew the joys of the spirit as well as the shadows of life’s valleys, and whose strange lamentation ritual inspired the title of this powerful, beautiful new Lost Dogs album. Sometimes believers “act out” in strange-looking ways from their deep repentance and desire for a sense of grace, and the extremely touching narrative in Taylor’s liner notes describing his grandmother’s use of a towel to spin out her fear and trembling is worth the price of the CD alone. But if you never listen to the twelve tracks of this, the Lost Dogs’ sixth album (the third for BEC), you will be missing music just as affecting, at least as emotionall compelling. Taylor might be a fabulous writer (as you probably know from his past columns for HM, let alone his fascinating extrapolations on faith and art and life on the various Daniel Amos, Lost Dogs, and affiliated websites – all bands he has a primary hand in), but he is an essential performer and songsmith, and Nazarene Crying Towel is proof that he is indeed getting better as he ages. His vocals have come to terms with the diverse styles he mastered musically over the years, from ’70s apocalyptic country rock to 80s wave noir to 90s protest pop skronk (and just about every other genre), and now he seems to feel most at ease singing the heartland Gospel devotionals and clever social observations recorded here. These are literally his best vocals for many of his lyrics – for example, the uptempo stark moment of clarity melodically described in «Deeper In The Heart» – and the musicianship in this new era of the Dogs since signing to BEC is now reflecting the ebullient magnificence of their not-to-be-missed live shows. But wait a second – so much about Taylor, and here Mike Roe (the Seventy Sevens) and Derry Daugherty (the Choir) increase their splendid participation, singing as much as Taylor and writing more than the last couple albums. One can now see how Taylor was trying to shape the band on Gift Horse and Real Men Cry, whereupon the far-too-soon absence of the late Gene Eugene inspired the Lost Dogs to celebrate his powerful influence by stripping back the novelty and kicking out the rural jams and pure tumbleweed blues. Roe is arguably one of rock’s finest vocalists – at times, his voice sends chills up me like no one else since Roy Orbison or Ian Curtis – and he and Derri’s lovely singing imbues these tracks with more depth and soul than possibly any other record you’ll hear this year. What a combination. I am utterly lifted by how everything comes together on this album, with the tightness of the involved artists’ regular rock bands, but the compelling melancholy of a new Johnny Cash or Steve Earle. (The adept instrumental assistance given by bassist Tim Chandler of DA and Steve Hindalong of the Choir, along with Phil Madeira‘s sublime production, really shines it all to near perfection.) I could have possibly used another punchy «Deeper In The Heart» sort-of track, but the record also includes the stark yet blissful «Darkest Night», which gets so close to musical art it ranks with Richard & Linda Thompson, and Roe’s brooding and gripping «Cry Out Loud». If you love really honest American roots and country soul music with an open spirit, enjoy the raw lyrical sincerity of post-punk country artists like those on the Bloodshot label, dig the true rock and roll soul of Petty’s and Springsteen’s best work, and/or wish Wilco was less cerebral and more about the song, don’t hesitate buying Nazarene Crying Towel. Forget that this is the same label that tried to swindle you out of money for “Swing Praise” and Cadet. Wipe off whatever you remember about this band or any other bands that Taylor, Roe, and Daugherty have been involved in. This Nazarene Crying Towel can stand on its own, and doesn’t need the word “come back.” Talent this true will never really go away. The runts of this world will never bring it down. [Chris Estey, HM Magazine]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/nazarene-crying-towel/724932670)
CD tracklist:
01. Moses In The Desert
02. There You Are
03. Deeper In The Heart
04. Come Down Here
05. Be My Hiding Place
06. Jesus On The Shore
07. Mercy Again
08. Cry Out Loud
09. The Yearning
10. Crushing Hand
11. Home Again
12. Darkest Night
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://terryscotttaylor.bandcamp.com/album/nazarene-crying-towel
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