Jonathan Gower has joined forces with other area musicians under the name Jonny Gowow and The Japanese Cowboys to release the collective’s full-length debut, Wide Stance. The 15-track compilation features several musical styles all pieced together with clever humor, spirited rhymes and eccentric lyrics.
Gower, a Middle Tennessee native, has performed in a number of bands across town for almost 10 years while studying musical composition at MTSU. If you’ve seen him perform, chances are the playful, sometimes candid nature of Wide Stance won’t come as a surprise.
The album begins with a 37-second intro titled “Pomp and Deliberance,” in which a woman with a heavy Southern twang attempts to introduce “Gowow,” but is quickly interrupted by a turn of events. It’s humorous at first, and certainly sets the tone for the album (described by the artist as a “deliberately comical social critique with decidedly homoerotic undertones”), but the gruff male voice demanding “Get over here and shut up!” is a little over the top.
After a moment of silence, the mood shifts and Gower’s deep vocals soothe atop an electric guitar on “Dragon Song”:
Now we’ve lost those places and familiar faces we used to love
And we’ve sold our feelings for electric stimulation and used rubber gloves
Gower maintains a serious tone while incorporating rhymes like the above to provide humor in a lighthearted, witty fashion throughout the release. This works most of the time, but the musical interlude “The Wide Stance Polka” interrupts the flow of things.
The style of music jumps around from song to song, none sounding similar enough to pinpoint one specific genre. However, the majority of songs are upbeat, piano-driven tunes like the aforementioned “Dragon Song” and “Sweet Boy,” which both could easily inspire an impromptu dance number.
One of the best songs featured on the album is “And So On,” a pop-ballad featuring a saxophone solo and reminiscent of the style and composition of singer-songwriter Ben Folds.
The production as a whole is fun, zany and sometimes a little over the edge, but that’s exactly what it’s meant to be.
To listen to Wide Stance for yourself, visit jonnygowow.bandcamp.com.
