Since the first time I slid this CD into the machine I have had a HATE/love relationship with it. This has meant that it was a struggle not to press the eject button before the end of the first song each and every time I play it, in fact, I really don't understand why you would put your worst song as the opener on an album. But then you also have to wonder at the fact that Petunia is a bloke called Petunia as I thought it would have been a woman even with his photo on the back cover.
So why do I hate The Cricket Song so much? well mainly because it is covered in Yodelling and there is no need for that in the 21st century, even if this album sounds more like they want a 19th century audience than a 21st century one. He yodels away in a style that went out of fashion when Jimmie Rodgers died in 1933 and I really don't see a revival of it coming any time soon.
That's followed by Mercy: a song that is full of whip cracking and dobro oddness that hankers after the Hank Williams sound and almost gets it which is no surprise when you realise the Vipers contains some ex-members of The Ricochets and they show how to play at breakneck speed on Maybe Baby Amy like they are going full tilt back to the 1930's once more.
Yes Baby Yes is a real old timey western swing thing that is auditioning for a role in the sequel to Oh Brother Where Art Thou? That is followed by some real western swing oddness on Gitterbug - damn this is so hokey in places as to make me wonder who it is pitched at.
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Stardust takes us back to Petunia's favourite era, yup 1937. It's so old skool as to be prehistoric and arcane in the extreme like he is channeling the earliest surviving tapes from the Grand Ole Opry. And making Hoagy Carmichael's own version seem like it's bang up to date.
The Ballad Of Handsome Ned is one of the tunes on this album that I loved. With a slow piano opening and the guitars creeping in we get told the story of a dead friend in a very touching and real way. Che (Guevara's Diary), meanwhile, is a cool and interesting take on this classic tune that he claims as his own. Hmmm.
The closing track on the album, It Ain't, opens with a Kazoo solo of all things before all manner of Old Timey madness ensues that just left me scratching my head as to why a bunch of obviously talented musicians would want to put out a record that is so obviously in denial of the modern world. Yes I've seen bands recording live to Wax Cylinder who sounded more modern than this lot.
So if you still have a wind up gramophone and want to be back in the 1930's this is the album for you. They will be touring the UK and Ireland in January and February of 2013 if they can get the Charabanc working in time.
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