Kinky Friedman

Kinky Friedman (Shout Factory)
For the past 40 years or so, Kinky Friedman has outraged his friends and enemies with his highbrow intellect and guttersnipe humor. He’s been a successful crime writer, with a series of best-selling novels starring a detective named, er, Kinky Friedman, and is running for governor of Texas, but it was music that first earned him national attention. Alone and with his band, the Texas Jewboys, he cut about a dozen albums between 1973 and 2005. Friedman’s records tended to be spotty, but this 15-track compilation wisely gives us the best tracks from Sold American, his one masterpiece, including “Ride ’em Jewboy,” a poignant tribute to Holocaust victims, and his tongue-in-cheek anti-feminist rant, “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed.” The rest of the album focuses on humorous tunes such as “Asshole From El Paso” and “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.” The compilation leaves out classic country ballads “Rapid City, South Dakota” and “Nashville Casualty & Life,” but that’s a small quibble. Every tune here lives up to the album’s “best of” title. — J. Poet