Smothered and Covered
Ask, and ye shall receive. Upon stumbling upon this bands’ Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/joeykillingsworth , my interest was piqued enough to add Smothered and Covered to my Christmas wish list. Christmas morning arrived and I found myself sitting in front of the tree opening a small package containing that very same CD by Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre. It made my day. I am definitely a sucker for the non-mainstream. And also a sucker for a title that also hints at one of the many ways one can get hash browns at one of my favorite chain restaurants, Waffle House: smothered with onions and covered with cheese.
Joecephus is Joe Killingsworth and is the brains, vocalist, and jack-of-all trades person behind this hellbilly/cowpunk crew. The songs are way off-center and mostly about drinking. The album kicks off with two energetic bluesy tracks, “Jerk You Off My Mind” , about a man in prison who ended up there because he caught his wife messing around with another dude, and “Honky Tonk Night Time Man”. One in particular I really enjoyed was “Bloody Mary Morning”, which boasted some mighty fine guitar playing.
Some of the other odd-ball, yet enjoyable songs of Smothered and Covered are “Drink Like a Fish”, and “Who’s Gonna Get us High?”. The strangest, however, being a slowed-down version of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells”, which was recorded as a duet, and made clever use of the violin. The song that almost got away, is an unlisted track at end of the CD. This being, a cover of Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses”, the man whose daddy used him for alligator bait and could eat his weight in groceries.
I really got a kick out of this CD, and look forward to hearing more music by Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre.
