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Historian of religions Mircea Eliade described shamans as specialists in ecstasy, able to "penetrate the underworld and rise to the sky" in a transcendent state.
It is not surprising, then, that the word "shamanistic" has been used repeatedly over the past 25 years to describe the incendiary performances of Nashville's Dave Cloud and his band The Gospel of Power. Weekly late-night shows for the unenlightened Nashville masses quickly established Cloud as Music City's enfant terrible while garnering diehard converts along the way. Holding a dusty mirror to pop music's tawdry conventions, Cloud and his colleagues deftly dismember the Frankenstein monster of modern musical excess.
Cloud's seminal 1999 release 'Songs I Will Always Sing' received critical accolades, with reviews from as far away as Paris and Auckland. As Edwin Pouncey of The Wire magazine noted, "he sounds more like a cross between acid-addled Roky Erickson and boozed Beat writer, the late Charles Bukowski, than Steve Earle or Willie Nelson."
The prolific Cloud didn't stop there. 'All My Best', released in 2004, was met with equal critical acclaim, and transfixed the listener with its dark exploration of carnal hedonism and "musical psychiatry." Like a lo-fi tantric yogi, Cloud invokes the great trilogy of girls, motorcycles, and money.
Napoleon of Temperance will revisit selections from both albums with the addition of a few brand new originals. In the spring Dave Cloud and The Gospel of Power, completed their first European tour in support of this release. Cloud's handpicked contingent of caballeros will include members of Lambchop and Clem Snide and will conjure the distinctive sonic magic Nashville has enjoyed for over two decades.
"alternating between revved-up garage band grind and a slack-stringed acoustic freestyle fumble"
WIRE
"Shamanistic Insanity"
TOTALLY RADIO
"eccentrically hooky and perversely seductive."
NASHVILLE SCENE
"he sounds more like boozed Beat writer, the late Charles Bukowski, than Steve Earle or Willie Nelson"
WIRE
" the last genuine lost genius 4/5"
THE SUNDAY TIMES
"crashes the dancefloor and proceeds to sing like Mick Jagger trapped inside a dog"
PLAN B
"This guy is a bit of a genius if you ask me."
NORMAN RECORDS
"Very odd, very good"
LEEDS GUIDE
" a Nashville institution"
THE SUNDAY TIMES
"a distinctive sonic magic experience"
NEW NOISE
"A modern classic in the making. Modern classic in the making."
MUSIC OMH
WIRE
"Shamanistic Insanity"
TOTALLY RADIO
"eccentrically hooky and perversely seductive."
NASHVILLE SCENE
"he sounds more like boozed Beat writer, the late Charles Bukowski, than Steve Earle or Willie Nelson"
WIRE
" the last genuine lost genius 4/5"
THE SUNDAY TIMES
"crashes the dancefloor and proceeds to sing like Mick Jagger trapped inside a dog"
PLAN B
"This guy is a bit of a genius if you ask me."
NORMAN RECORDS
"Very odd, very good"
LEEDS GUIDE
" a Nashville institution"
THE SUNDAY TIMES
"a distinctive sonic magic experience"
NEW NOISE
"A modern classic in the making. Modern classic in the making."
MUSIC OMH