Send "David Dondero " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 The cover photo is of David Dondero in a trucker cap and flannel shirt, in front of a silo of some kind, looking solemn. You can read hardship into his expression. It could be a news photo for an article about the state of working class America. Times are hard. But look, in the background, there’s a rainbow.A Pre-Existing Condition is an album of folk music, featuring hard-traveling troubadour Dondero, his acoustic guitar, and occasionally some friends, playing mainly covers and a few playful originals. Coming just a half year after his last album, # Zero with a Bullet, it’s a stop on the endless road, a snapshot in time—not as driven as his other albums, but just as devoted to the way songs can chronicle the lives of people and places. Sometimes there is hardship in the background but sweetness out in front, like the tender version of Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’”, with Dondero singing at his softest, or the slightly more bittersweet, still gently approached “Don’t Cry No Tears”, the Neil Young Zuma track that Dondero has been routinely playing live for years. Then there is one of the absolute classic songs about the rich and poor struggling over resources, a chronicle of the damage done to people’s livelihoods in the name of progress, with the stroke of a pen. That’s Woody Guthrie’s Robin Hood tale “Pretty Boy Floyd”, with its forever relevant observations on which crimes matter most: “You’ll never see an outlaw drive a family from their home”....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| "I need to get away," David Dondero sang on his last album, 2010's # Zero with a Bullet. "I really need to get away from me." As David Bevan pointed out in his review, Dondero sounded like a man on his last professional leg, a cowboy staggering with a bullet wound. He'd been in the music business for nearly 20 years, playing in a variety of genres and bands before settling into a solo career playing dusty country folk. His warbly vocal style inspired Conor Oberst, and NPR's "All Things Considered" called him one of the best living songwriters, yet sales remained negligible over the years, even after he signed to his protégé's Team Love Records. It's understandable that any artist might be discouraged with such a lousy return on his creative investment, and at the risk of coming across as bitter or entitled, # Zero with a Bullet exorcised that frustration even as it threatened to make failure the theme of this phase in Dondero's career. His quick-on-the-heels follow-up, A Pre-Existing Condition, is the artist getting away from Team Love, from electric guitars, from himself. In addition to returning to Ghostmeat Records, which released Dondero's first two solo efforts in 1999 and 2000, he revisits an older sound and older songs: At distinct odds with # Zero, A Pre-Existing Condition is an all-acoustic record, relying on guitars, upright bass, and harmonica as well as shakers, tambourine, and caxixi. It's a rough-and-tumble sound, no less sophisticated for sounding so spontaneous, especially when William Tonks' dobro illuminates the cover of Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears". Of the baker's dozen tracks, only four are Dondero originals-- three if you believe "Please Hand Me Over to the Undertaker" is actually a decades-old gothic blues number (it sounds like one). The remaining nine tracks are covers ranging from Lowell George's trucker anthem "Willin'" to Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train" to "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'", a massive hit for Charley Pride. Unshouldering the songwriting burden, Dondero sounds lighter and more engaged, his signature vocal style lending these songs a loose interpretive touch. He even has the temerity to adapt Jimmie Rodgers' "T for Texas" for a cheap shot at you-know-who: "Gonna shoot that dirty hipster that stole my voice away." The song, however, can't really support the sentiment, which sounds like a too-clever twist ending....full text |
| Recorddept |
| In September I reviewed David Dondero’s # Zero with a Bullet and I am pleased that his ninth album A Pre-Existing Condition is only a couple months out, with a release set for February 22 on Ghostmeat Records. The highly lauded American singer/songwriter known for his narrative storytelling is backed on this all acoustic album by Rob Keller (Six String Drag - upright bass, vocals), William Tonks (Bloodkin – dobro, guitar) and Russ Hallauer (Sunbrain – mandolin, banjo) plus other special guests. As the title implies, A Pre-Existing Condition features a number of covers of works by Little Feat, Elizabeth Cotten, Charlie Pride, Neil Young, Woody Guthrie, Doug Sahm, Jawbreaker, Bob Dylan and Jimmie Rodgers as well as a few original songs. Be on the lookout for this great addition to Dondero’s accomplished discography. – Written by JFelton...full text |
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