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Dave Cloud Press Archive: 1999–2005

Issue 252, February 2005

Dave Cloud: Songs I Will Always Sing and All My Best
[album review]
By Edwin Pouncey

“Those expecting to hear portly Elvis Presley and Hank Willams impersonations will be disappointed/thrilled to learn that [Nashville's] Cloud and his group rise above the

Press Archive

expected. On songs like the infectiously-hooked 'I'll Run the Jack on You' and 'Subliminal Face' [from Songs I Will Always Sing] he sounds more like a cross between acid-addled vocalist Roky Erickson and boozed Beat writer, the late Charles Bukowski, than Steve Earle or Willie Nelson. . . . His laconic treatment of the Byrds' 'Eight Miles High' pulls the soaring electrified drug anthem back to earth with a thud and transforms it into a hymn for a hangover.

Cloud's second release [All My Best] manages to eclipse the eccentricities of the first. These 22 songs include an inspired treatment of War's 'All Day Music' that transforms the original into a vibrating blur of funked-up warbling exotica. Although clearly more than novelty music, with references to Bruce Lee and Bela Lugosi, you can't help suspecting Cloud must watch a lot of late night TV for creative inspiration. But he clearly has genuine affection for the songs he covers on both records.”

28 October 2004

The Gospel of Power's Musical Mission; Springwater stalwart Dave Cloud's new recording taps rock's twisted essence
[Review of Dave Cloud's second album All My Best]
By David Maddox

“[Part] of rock 'n' roll's foundations stands on something a lot like the music of Dave Cloud: a compulsion to make noise and play with words and an unabashed lustfulness. The songs [on Cloud's new CD All My Best] include a mix of originals and covers that translate a love of '60s and '70s rock and soul through the lens of punk and experimentation.”
» Read the complete review (

PDF, 106 KB)

12 August 2004

Nashville Scene Music Awards—Nominees (Rock/Experimental category): Dave Cloud's Gospel of Power

“[Dave Cloud] played gigs for years before releasing his first CD in 1999, Dave Cloud Presents. . . Songs I Will Always Sing. Cloud's debut is an album of explosive electric tunes mixed with a few low-key acoustic numbers, most of which share one simple, common theme: love. Cloud often takes on a lounge lizard persona while delivering these tales of love that are equally warbling, incoherent, eccentrically hooky and perversely seductive.”
» Read the complete article

27 December 2001

Dave Cloud taping for the BC, Springwater [concert review]
By William Tyler
“Cloud is a Nashville institution, either loved or misunderstood, and despite the sometimes ad hoc nature of his shows at Springwater, he still has the power to amaze. This August, when a film crew from the BC was in town to document “a night in Nashville,” Cloud and his band (Paul Booker on guitar and Matt Bach on drums, augmented by Matt Swanson on bass and Tony Crow on keys) put on arguably the most stellar rock show of the year. Whether they were grinding through garage-anthems-in-the-making like “Dracula’s Lair,” or Cloud was giving a passionate rendition of “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” against some of Crow’s saccharine synth backing, it was a wonder to behold.”
» Read the complete article

18 September 2000

Dave Cloud Presents... Songs I Will Always Sing
[album review]
By William Tyler

“This is a truly great rock record, from start to finish, and I can only hope it's not just a blip on the radar. Cloud deserves the full scale infamy he so clearly acts out, but the world might not be ready for it. He's not a jerk, he's not pretentious, and he looks like Isaac Asimov on a three day bender. Yet he exudes a sort of star quality that so many other local celebrities like Whiskeytown's Ryan Adams or . . . Steve Earle totally forget about.”

2 December 1999

The Gospel Truth; Dave Cloud is an American original
[Review of Dave Cloud's first album Songs I Will Always Sing]
By Heather Nelson

“[Dave Cloud] is a rock musician, but with a twist. He betrays a unique sense of melody with his deep throaty growls, and his band takes the tired three-chord formula and transforms it into something at once droning, dissonant, and strangely catchy—love songs played at full rock 'n' roll volume.”
» Read the complete review