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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 bowel, 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!!! Check out their web site at www.thelostdogs.com 

Chris MacIntosh aka Grandfather Rock 4/13/2003

Terry Scott Taylor.  Mike Roe.  Derri Daughterty.  Steve Hindalong and Phil Madeira chipping in on various instruments.  Knowledgeable listeners of Christian music would expect quite a bit from a lineup like that.  This group of legendary musicians and songwriters delivers just that on the latest release from the Lost Dogs, Nazarene Crying Towel.

Awesome in its simplicity, this album offers a blueprint of how Americana style music should be done.  The instrumentation is complimentary, rather than overpowering.  The singers do just that, sing, without straining, without imitating today's styles and trends, without studio tricks.  Taylor, Roe, and Daughtery all contribute songs, sing, and play well, adding up a combination not unlike the Traveling Wilburys, or Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

"Moses in the Desert" faces the personal struggles of sin and confrontation.  "There You Are" depicts God waiting for us to stop running from Him:

 I've been told You're known to say a word
 A thing or two about love that never doubts
 I'm just know-it-all
 Still I blow it all
 Need to give in to the love I've lived without.

Interestingly, none of these songs say anything new, other than the occasional turn of phrase.  They simply and clearly shows humans as they are, inevitably failing without the grace and mercy of God.  Nazarene Crying Towel points out the truths that we all know, not in an overbearing or holier-than-thou way, but with a kind, loving spirit that characterizes the God we all hope to see one day.  Along with Derek Webb's She Can and Must Go Free, two of my Top Ten spots for 2003 are now spoken for.

Brian A. Smith 5 May 2003

Only the daftest of critics could fail to notice what seems to be the intrinsically short half-life of most so-called supergroups.  Eric Clapton's Cream put out only three proper projects during its two-year tenure, while Led Zep guitar wiz Jimmy Page and Bad Company front man Paul Rogers managed only two releases under their Firm moniker before pulling up stakes in 1986.  And who knows how many other musical aggregates, in both the Christian and mainstream camps, have been relegated to single-album catalogs and live shows consisting predominantly of the occasional all-star jams at outdoor summer festivals.

Perhaps as a tribute to an improbably long career, which began with the Scenic Routes disc in 1992, the Lost Dogs play host to a wide assortment of musical styles on their latest offering.  Songs like "There You Are" and the lead-off cut, "Moses in the Desert," hark back to the at-the-time surprisingly countrified textures of the debut record.  Others, like "Come Down Here" fall in line with the sparkling country-meets-rock hybrid mined to such fine effect on 1999's Green Room Serenade.  Elsewhere, the group turns its attention to blues ("Cry Out Loud"), meditative modern pop ("Darkest Night") and acoustically-based contemporary worship (the City-on-a-Hill-inclined "Crushing Hand"), with equally stellar results throughout.

Where such a wide-reaching palette might spell doom for lesser groups, Towel's disparity of styles winds up, in Sgt. Pepperlike fashion, being perhaps its greatest strength.  And Roe, Taylor and Daugherty's uncanny ability to take that which has been crafted with such heartfelt passion and attention to detail and have it come across so convincingly off-the-cuff spontaneous remains one of the trio's most endearingly distinctive assets.  Those already ensconced within the Lost Dogs camp will likely need little prodding to go out and pick up the new album.  For the uninitiated and skeptical, though, the Crying Towel project serves as undeniable proof that the all of the hype surrounding the Dogs cooperative is, indeed, very much deserved.

Bert Gangl   5/11/2003

The superstar trio of Derri Daugherty, Mike Roe, and Terry Taylor have once again assumed their folkster alter egos and have joined forces in their ultimate long-running side project,  The Lost Dogs.   This time around, the threesome has contributed a gem in the poignant, mellifluous album, Nazarene Crying Towel.  

Filled with simple, meditative lyrics, this record explores the timeless themes of the yearning for the Divine and God’s love.  These  twelve tunes are a wonderful mixture of the weepy, the happy-go-lucky, and even shades of Roy Orbison in the cut “Mercy Again.”  Nazarene Crying Towel successfully balances its diffusion of folk, country, and blues styles with grace and ease.  Of course, given the talent level behind the making of this record, I would expect nothing less. This is great music for pensive ruminations or back road, Sunday-afternoon drivin’. 

In short,  the Dogs have produced another album that is worthy of their pedigree.    

Noel Lloyd 7/13/2003