Kinky Friedman is back, with his first studio album in 39 years, and a brave change of direction. In the 70s, leading the Texas Jewboys, he caused outrage with his blend of bawdy humour and political comment. Since then he has spent more time writing novels than music, and this mostly sad, varied set shows he is still one of the great country storytellers. His own songs include the title track, a classic bar-room weepie, while the covers range from a duet with his friend Willie Nelson on Bloody Mary Morning to an unexpected, gently crooned A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. Best of all are his intimate, whispered reworking of Tom Waits’s A Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis and the pained, half-spoken My Shit’s Fucked Up, written by Warren Zevon about his failing health but now treated as a pained reflection on “the condition of the world today”.
