About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

As Kinky Friedman prepares to trounce his Republican opponent, the incumbent Rick Perry (famously and regularly derided by morning radio talk show host Don Imus as a "former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader"), and move into the Texas governor's mansion in Austin, it behooves us all to remember whence this Renaissance man (bestselling author, musician, raconteur, politician) sprang. Sustain's succinct, ten-track sampling offers a pleasing, even eye-opening spectrum of Kinky's artistry. Satire in song is rare in this humorless age, and for being eminently conversant with it, Kinky deserves our undying respect (and our votes!). In the early '70s, when superficial street theater (burning bras, etc.) threatened to obscure the serious issues animating the Women's Liberation movement, Kinky offered a classic male response to all this folderol, "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven" (And Your Buns in the Bed)," a song that did not endear him to feminists either then or now but kicks ass here in a raucous, western-swing inspired rendition by Kevin Fowler that begs everyone to get over themselves. "Ethnocentric racists" get a poke in the eye with the sharp stick of Kinky's acerbic wit in Todd Snider's frenzied honky-tonk rendering of "They Ain't Making Jews like Jesus Anymore" (which has been amended to include a reference to Governor Kinky rooting out the bigots once in office). But there are tender, touching moments too: Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis's duet on the lovely "Lady Yesterday," Delbert McClinton's melancholic, bittersweet "Autograph," and especially Lyle Lovett's graceful, gently shuffling take on a prescient bit of social commentary, "Sold American." Add in an old-school country take of the kiss-off classic "Rapid City, South Dakota," courtesy of an inspired Dwight Yoakam, and what's left but to pull the lever for the Kinkster on Nov. 1? David McGee, Barnes & Noble

Customer Reviews

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