Farce the Music

Mar 19, 2021

Alan Jackson to Release Album of Cringey Novelty Songs

There’s news on the Alan Jackson front. The long, tall country legend, who hasn’t released a full album since 2015’s Angels and Alcohol today announced Crazy as a Pet Coon, an album of novelty songs to be dropped in May.

“We like to put a fun ‘un on every album, you know.” said Jackson, in the PR blast. “Well, we had about 50 of them that never made the cut for one reason or another, so I decided to collect the best and put ‘em out.” He went on: “If this one does well, we’ll put out another volume that’ll have songs about rhubarb pie, waiting in the DMV, and cutting your toenails on the bed.”

Jackson’s more light-hearted songs of the past have touched on everything from sandwich meat to sandals, drawing guffaws for both humor and, let’s face it, pure inelegance. Kids today might even call them “cringe.” His uneasy relationship with technology has also been a consistent topic, in songs such as “www.memory” and “I Still Like Bologna.”

This collection looks to serve up an artery-clogging main course of the same kind of cheese. The title track, a southern colloquialism come to life, ponders life with a wild woman who’s as “cute as she is crazy.” “Don’t Let the Butterbean Juice Run on My Biscuit” pretty much gives the story away in its name, documenting a failing relationship in which each partner focuses on the minor details rather than work on the real issues.

The album leads off with "I Got Redbugs," a big fear of every southern youngun’ who has taken a leak in the great outdoors. Jackson gets surprisingly crude in this one, singing of “parasites on muh pecker” and body parts “swole up like maters.” It certainly brings the laughter, if only in a shocked “oh my God, why did he sing about that and in that particular manner?” kind of way.

We also get a sequel to “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” on the album, titled, obviously, “I Still Don’t Even Know Your Name.” Then there's “I’ve Got a Hemi,” which we didn’t hear, but is clearly a sexual metaphor about pickup trucks.

Crazy as a Pet Coon is out May 14, and the full track list is below.

1. I Got Redbugs

2. Vienna Sausage Blues

3. I Still Don’t Even Know Your Name

(Sequel to “I Don’t Even Know Your Name”)

4. iPhone uPhone wePhone

5. Meat and Three

6. Don’t Let the Butterbean Juice Run on My Biscuit

7. She Left Me on Read

8. I’ve Got a Hemi

9. Warshcloth

10. Page Me a Beer

11. Crazy as a Pet Coon

Mar 18, 2021

New Video / Ottoman Turks / "Conspiracy Freak"

From their forthcoming album Ottoman Turks II.

Wallen's "Cancellation"

Album Review / Morgan Wade / Reckless

Review by Trailer

Buzzing, passionate, vibrant. That’s what Reckless sounds like to me. There’s an indefinable quality to Morgan Wade’s music that goes beyond those three descriptors. Just a certain something going on between her voice and my mind…an electricity…an “it” factor. She’s got it in spades.

The opening song “Wilder Days” kicks off the album with a yearning. It’s a really early song-of-the-year contender that finds Morgan intrigued by her man’s past. While she doesn’t necessarily want to find out every detail, just knowing he used to be a wild one invigorates the present relationship. The song falls somewhere between Americana and late-90s alt-rock to these ears, and that’s an ‘in the wheelhouse’ space for me.

“Other Side” is almost literally the other side of that song’s coin. She sings of a friend or lover who’s seen the crazy days with her in tow. It’s reassuring knowing someone has seen you at your lowest, knows all your flaws, and still has your back.

The closing track “Met You” strips back the electric buzz and it’s just Morgan and little else. It finds her in one of those dark moments, alone and regretting someone left behind, and considering what that’s driven her to. “I’m well aware that I might not ever find glory, but like Hemingway and Hadley, it’s not the end of our story” she sings, keeping hope alive.

There are notes of Lucinda and Elizabeth Cook …and Garbage and Matchbox 20, oddly enough, in Morgan Wade’s presentation, and I can’t get enough of it. There’s a knowing tone of confidence mixed with a questioning undercurrent of sadness all through the album. She’s enough of the way through the journey of finding herself to have an air of comfort taming the tension. The balance of those two feelings makes Reckless a real winner.

Reckless is available everywhere you buy or stream music tomorrow.