Word: jewish
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...other minorities. So what might have seemed impossible became inevitable, and finally happened: a rawboned Texan with a tall hat, a gunslinger moustache, and a cigar between his clenched teeth swaggered onto the country stage, and the crackers moved over to make room for Kinky Friedman, the first Jewish country music star...
...doubters, Friedman's first album, Sold American (1973) proved that he was both authentically country and authentically Jewish. It amply demonstrated his ludicrous comic talents, in addition to his considerable musical abilities. Humor is almost impossible to find in country music, and musical talent comparable to Friedman's is only slightly less rare. Those characteristics immediately distinguished Friedman from the general run of country artists, and his first album raised him a notch higher still. Sold American was a unique montage, mixing outrageous humorous songs with serious, sensitive ballads, plus a number. "Ride 'Em Jewboy," that despite its flippant title...
...most part, though, Friedman's attempts at humor, outrageously funny in his first album, here are less outrageous and much less funny, usually degenerating into clumsy tastelessness or aimless wisecracking. His glorification of Jewish machismo, "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore," is embarrassingly sophomoric. "Somethin's Wrong With the Beaver," a eulogy to Jerry Mathers--supposedly killed in Victnam, actually alive and working as a bank teller in California--wavers between pathos and satire, finally achieving neither. Most of the other songs are simply incoherent or pointless. Where Sold American was absurdly satirical or emotionally poignant this album...
What makes this production especially disappointing is that Kinky Friedman is an artist of uncommon talents, with a creative mind and an emotional range lacking any precedent in country music. His position as country's only Jewish performer, balanced by his thorough familiarity with the roots of country music, makes him potentially invaluable as an imaginative and broadening influence on the industry. But his potential is far from fulfilled in this album, as he doubtless knows. Maybe that's why the jacket shows him burying his face in his hands. At least he has a sense of shame...
Igor Galanin, a Jewish immigrant from the Soviet Union, is showing his paintings at the Pucker/Safari Gallery, 171 Newbury St., Boston...