Artist: Kinky Friedman
Album: Circus of Life
Label: Echo Hill Records
Release Date: 07.03.2018
In today’s musical environs there are very few “originals” left. Texas-based Kinky Friedman is a charter-member of that special club: Poet, balladeer, social activist, animal protector and political voice, he personifies his hard-earned rep as a tunesmith living on the edge, with an irreverence that embodies his 50+ years as one of America’s premier troubadours.
Circus of Life is Friedman’s 16th album and also one of his finest hours. In fact, if he never wrote a song again, there are several here that stick to your soul like gum on a sidewalk and undeniably will become new K.F. classics such as: “Jesus in Pajamas,” with its finality knocking at the door. Haunting overtures of unrequited love surround in “Circus of Life,” and “Sister Sarah has a stark reality of its own: “Every saint was once a sinner, every sinner once a saint. Everything we think we are is everything we ain’t.” The closing track, “Sayin’ Goodbye,” is lyrical perfection: “Sayin’ goodbye isn’t easy for a fool with a tear in his eyes. All of my life I’ve been busy dreaming of saying goodbye.”
Brian Molnar, who produced this CD, has done a remarkable job of capturing Friedman at his raw best in 12 powerful tracks, including “Autographs In the Rain,” an ode to fellow friend & Texan, Willie Nelson.
A good friend of mine whom I consider to be an enlightened music-man of the highest order recently opined: “Kinky Friedman, huh? A bat shit crazy…genius!” ’Nuff said.
—Bob Girouard
They ain’t makin’ kinksters like Kinky anymore