Jay Munly...Jimmy Carter Sydrome(2002)[FLAC]

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2002 Jimmy Carter Syndrome CD Smooch SMOOCH4

1 My Darling Sambo 5:48
2 Circle Round My Bedside 5:11
3 Cooney vs. Munly 5:24
4 Haggie Hennies Almost Dirty Dress 4:35
5 Censer From the Footlights 6:17
6 Spill the Wine 3:32
7 The Denver Boot 6:23
8 Weegee_ The Uninvited_ Blues #2 4:17
9 Dar He Drone 6:20
10 Cattle, I Will Hang 6:27
11 Chant Down Cap'n 5:47
12 The Fabulous History of the Churchill Falls Barrel Races 8:50

This is the fourth solo album from Jay Munly -- storyteller, artist, musician, singer, member of the astonishing Slim Cessna's Auto Club, raconteur, roustabout and a man who looks like he may have been dead for the past eight days or so. His is a singular presence, even amongst the odd-looking bastards that make up the Auto Club: his hollow eyes, intense expression and funeral director's taste in couture convince you that he's the real deal long before his tales of weird gothic strangeness can. Sure, much of the Southern Gothic attitude is an act, but it's an act into which he pours his whole soul; it's an act, but it's an act the way that Elvis' sex appeal was an "act".
I've been snagged pretty thoroughly in the web of Cessna and Co., and had already picked up two previous Munly solo albums at their concerts. Munly's position in the band is central, but not quite as central as Slim's. He is generally the secondary singer, though he is often the vocal scene-stealer; with his tremendous range and his alternately sepulchral and piercing tone, he can cut right through the layers of music and grab the listener's attention. His previous solo outings had impressed me, and I had listened several times to each; they were both very acoustic and antebellum-sounding, the kind of albums that fit a very specific mood. I looked very much forward to hearing this, his first solo outing since he joined the Auto Club.

It's a quantum leap forward, both in sound and in songwriting. It may even be better than the Auto Club's Always Say Please and Thank You -- a statement that counts as sacrilege in certain countries, but a valid point. There is less that is strictly country here, and more that is gothic with a capital "G". The musicians who back Munly on this outing include half of the Auto Club and half of fellow country/goth/rockers 16 Horsepower, and the banjo, mandolin, electric and acoustic guitars figure prominently in these songs, as they do in those bands' sounds. However, Munly also takes full advantage of the one major country instrument not represented in his other band -- the fiddle. The fiddle tones here, frequently matched against a bowed bass, give the music both an eerie and a plaintive quality that is positively brilliant. There are no rave-ups here, but that's not what the solo Munly is about. He's largely about letting you into the stories in his psyche, however disturbing a journey that may be.

There is also a distinct carnality about Munly's songs that is far more prominent than in his band's efforts. "Do you remember Jerry Cooney / Well, girls put your titties away." This is the beginning of a song that has Munly beating a boxer to death. The mortality is of a piece with the sex, and that remains true throughout most of these tracks. There is a scene in which the singer finds his true love dead, with his newborn son still bloody but alive between her legs; there is another where another woman "pulled me out to the dying field / pushed me down and straddled me there / then I cupped my hands between her crotch / caught the water from her hair." This is visceral stuff, and you could certainly say that Munly is a randy little bugger. Still, all of this sex fits neatly within a tradition of the Southern Gothic, and matches nicely with the music.

Jimmy Carter Syndrome is a gothic country fan's dream, from start to finish. Munly is a truly brilliant man, and it's nice to see him continue to stretch his legs as a solo artist during his time off from collaborating with Slim and Co. This album should more than suffice for the months we have to wait before the next Cessna release. May Munly have many more albums ahead of him, however deceased he continues to look


http://dickthespic.org/2010/11/30/jay-munly/