Why the Hell Not...: The Songs of Kinky Friedman

Performer: Kinky Friedman/Various Artists
Engineer: Ken Tondre; Sam Seifert; Frank Campbell; Joe Gracey; Adam Odor; John Dickson; Larry Seyer; Kevin Szymanski
Producer: Ken Tondre; Doug Lancio; Kacey Jones; Ray Benson; Billy Williams; Jason Boland; Bruce Robison; Charlie Robison
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Ray Benson (vocals, guitar, electric guitar); Kevin Fowler, Charlie Robison (vocals, background vocals); Willy Braun (vocals); David Abeyta, Doug Lancio, Willie Pipkin (guitar); Kevin Carroll (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Dwight Yoakam, Patrick Bergeson, Gabe Rhodes, Gary Nicholson, Jody Payne, James Hyland (acoustic guitar); James Pennebaker, Lee Roy Parnell, Willie Nelson (electric guitar); Kim Deschamps (steel guitar, banjo); Eddie Rivers (steel guitar); Cindy Cashdollar, Marty Muse (dobro); Dennis Ludiker (mandolin); Jason Roberts , Cody Braun (fiddle, background vocals); Brian Beken, Johnny Gimble, Warren Hood, Danny Levin (fiddle); Mickey Raphael (harmonica); Joel Jose Guzman, Chip Dolan (accordion); Ken Tondre (kazoo, drums, percussion); John Michael Whitby (piano, keyboards); John Dedrick, Kevin McKendree, Floyd Domino, Bobby Nelson (piano); Craig Wright, David Sanger, Phillip Fajardo, Freddy Joe Fletcher, Lynn Williams, Conrad Choucroun (drums); Elizabeth McQueen, David Earl Miller (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Ken Tondre; Doug Lancio; Frank Campbell; Adam Odor; Jon "JD" Dickson; Larry Seyer; Kevin Szymanski. Singer, songwriter, actor, novelist, and perhaps the future governor of Texas -- given Kinky Friedman's impressive r�sum�, you wouldn't think it would be especially hard to assemble a tribute album to the Legendary Texas Jewboy, but 2006's Why the Hell Not...: The Songs of Kinky Friedman suggests it was harder than expected to get his better-known fans to step up to the mic. Four of the ten tracks on Why the Hell Not... were borrowed from an earlier Friedman tribute, 1999's Pearls in the Snow: The Songs of Kinky Friedman, and it's worth noting the best-known names appearing here were lifted from that earlier collection (Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, and Delbert McClinton, all of whom deliver strong and affecting performances). Of the new material, Charlie Robison digs deep into the sad heart of "The Wild Man of Borneo," Jason Boland walks a fine line between wink-and-nudge wit and human tragedy on "The Gospel According to John," and Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis deliver their usual lovely harmonies on "Lady Yesterday." However, Kevin Fowler and Todd Snider try a little too hard for laughs on (respectively) "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven" and "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore," and for an album that pays homage to a gifted songwriter whose career spans four decades, ten songs in less than 40 minutes seems to barely scratch the surface. The best moments on Why the Hell Not... demonstrate that Friedman is a first-rate tunesmith whose sense of humor doesn't detract from his ability to tell a powerful story when he's inspired, but there just aren't enough of them here, and with four of the best songs taken from another disc, one wonders if it would have been better and easier to simply reissue Pearls in the Snow. ~ Mark Deming

No Depression (p.105) - "Delbert McClinton interprets 'Autograph' in a soulful, insightful manner..."

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