Muleskinner Jones - Alcohol Tobacco Raygun (2007) torrent

Muleskinner Jones - Alcohol Tobacco Raygun (2007) mp3


The debut full-length LP from Muleskinner Jones. Songs about God, Satan, firearms, liquor, aliens and Hank Snr..

It seems a long, long time ago that I first heard the demented country blues noir of Muleskinner Jones on his incredible Death Row Hoedown mini album, well now he is back with his first full length release and Im pleased to announce that this is every bit as good if not better.

If you can imagine a black humoured folk/blues/country troubadour who has a liking for abusing his instruments and writing songs about how shit life is, failure, drinking and death, then youre in the right territory for the adventures and stories of one of the great unknowns. Muleskinner writes introspective odes as well as songs based on very real events and performs each one of his stories as if it was last.

The album opens with a minute long acoustic folk track entitled Mr Jones Last Song, a wonderfully tongue in cheek song that sees Muleskinner admit to his past failures and realise that its time to move on before its too late, its a catchy little ditty thats kind of like the calm before the storm and sets the mood for the rest of the album nicely. The likes of the delightfully throw-away honk-tonk country of Drinking To Get Drunk and the brilliant distorted guitar gospel rap of Satan Is My Bitch continues the laugh out loud humour.

But this album is not all about humour, the likes of the raw art rock of Death In Dixie is a well-written and deadly serious account of the American civil war, which actually manages to create vivid images of death from the descriptive lyrics. Blood And Muskets is a two-parted track that repeats the trick,

Muleskinner writes an intelligent and well researched account of Native American genocide on the first half, whilst the reprise brings the subject up to date with the Native American people still being victimised by the US goverment. Both could have been penned by Nick Cave.
The variation of styles and substance are highlighted on the ten-minute epic, Her Desert Yard, a track that begins as a menacing Bad Seeds time stomp before heading into an industrial, Ministry plays folk hoedown complete with menacing percussion, mandolin and jew harp. Its a wonderfully inventive track that sounds quite unlike anything else Ive heard before and is worth the price of the album alone.

Alcohol Tobacco Raygun? is a stunning journey into the mind of a genuine music maverick. Muleskinner Jones is a true one off, who creates unique, often fun and always thought provoking music that should appeal to anyone whos bored with the mainstream.

Rhythm & Booze Rating 10/10