Monday, November 26, 2007

Real Music by Real People: Andy Cloniger and Dog Named David



Well, since there really is no way to seperate the two, I will just cover them both in one post. Dog Named David was the "original bionic folk duo" consisting of Andy Cloninger and John Wallace. They have since gone their seperate ways- with Andy doing his solo projects and a myriad of other odd things, including writing a couple of books. (Andy has several solo worship projects you really should check out at his site.) John went from Indie Rocker to the priesthood (I kid you not) and is happily raising his family in Florida, which is a big improvement over preceding "Sprinkles the Clown" on the stage at a college fun day.

We met John and Andy while I was living in Mobile and working at the Christian music store, The Amplified Version. (I also went to college with Andy and his lovely wife.) The first Dog Named David Cd "It's Alright" had just come out and we were selling them like crazy. After a lot of concerts, hot donuts and late nites at Shoney's with the guys we became the "original fans". We continued to keep up with the guys even after we moved to Raleigh- driving down to Greenville SC to see them in concert a number of times and even do a photo shoot that they will thank me for not sharing the images with you.

Their musical style has often been compared to that of the Indigo Girls, JackoPierce, or early Vertical Horizon. They put together 3 CDs while together, "It's Alright", "World Traveler", and "Acoustic Canine", and you can download the latter on their bare-bones site just for that purpose. I have also found "World Traveler" at e-music. (Both are certainly worth a download and listen.)

I am eternally in debt to these guys for introducing us to what have since become some of our favorite artists: David Wilcox, Jonetha Brooke, Pierce Pettis and others. We had a lot of laughs in their company, and they are just great all around guys. And best of all? They can also get you a mighty good price for a possum, dontcha know?

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