Hillbilly Homeboy
Tim Wilson
Levon Helm
Engineer: Steve Melton,
Producer: Tim Wilson
Capitol Nashville Records, 2000
1 CD
Catalogue #: 25930
EAN: 0724352593026
UPC: 724352593026
You save: 20%
Personnel: Tim Wilson (vocals); Will McFarlane (guitar, dobro); Ed King (guitar); Levon Helm (mandolin, harmonica, drums); Clayton Ivey (piano, Wurlitzer piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Dean Daughtry (piano, keyboards); David Hood (bass); George Lawrence (drums).
Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound, Sheffield, Alabama; Recording Arts Studios, Nashville, Tennessee; The Comedy Catch, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Tim Wilson's act out-rednecks Jeff Foxworthy and then some--it's safe to say that if you aren't a Southerner, you just won't get some of the material on Wilson's third CD, HILLBILLY HOMEBOY. A mix of live standup bits and parody songs, the CD features Wilson covering topics such as Baptists, fireworks, ticket-happy cops, annoying relatives and, above all, NASCAR. If you're not a NASCAR fan, a great many of the jokes here ("Talladega," "Earnhardt," "Chad Little," "Tide & Skittles") will go right over your pointy head.
However, the best tracks on HILLBILLY HOMEBOY are the song parodies, and fortunately, nearly all of these are universal enough to appeal to most country fans. He skewers racist ballplayer John Rocker in "The Ballad of John Rocker," does several wickedly funny impersonations in "Michael McDonald Had a Farm," and delivers some pointed commentary on "Back When Country Was Ugly." But one thing you won't find here is relationship humor--as Wilson explains, "Sex just sounds dirtier when a Southerner talks about it."
Tracklist
Levon Helm
Primarily known for playing drums and singing with 1960s phenomenon the Band, Levon Helm has, in the intervening years, never fallen fallow or rested on his laurels. The distinctive singer and songwriter made the rare successful musician-to-actor crossover with memorable appearances in over a dozen feature films. He has released excellent solo albums that mine the country end of the Band's spectrum, and in recent years has made musical news by hosting (and sometimes recording) his sprawling, guest-star-laden "Midnight Ramble" concerts at his home in Woodstock, New York. Helm battled and won a bout with throat cancer, which modified his singing style but didn't dampen his artistic spirit.
