Kinky Friedman
Album: Under the Double Ego
Release Date: 1983
‘Under the Double Ego’ was Kinky Friedman’s melancholic goodbye note to the music industry. It would be thirty-two eventful years before he recorded another studio album. When he recorded this one in 1983, he was disillusioned with the music business and chose to work with the Austin based Sunrise label, who had a limited distribution network, rather than deal with corporate record executives. The album was produced locally by Sammy Allred, member of the Geezinslaws and long time radio personality who would eventually be included in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. The Texas Jewboys disbanded before the album was recorded forcing Kinky to assemble studio musicians from the crowded local talent pool, which included recruiting Chris O’Connell from Asleep at the Wheel fame.
Kinky Friedman was in the midst of a professional transformation. He was walking away from life as a country music star and embracing the role of novelist, while noodling on the prospect of politics. He himself described it as an evolution instead of a transformation, after all, what is a novel if it is not an extended version of a country song? When describing his pivot to literature at this late stage in his career to the Austin American Statesman he said, “you have to live it before you can make it come out of your horn, as old jazz players say. You have to let experiences percolate through your life a little before you can write about them.”
The same version of the Kinkster who gave that quote also penned the songs on ‘Under the Double Ego.’ It’s a thoughtful, mellow, and witty collection of country-folk songs. Jacqueline Toller wrote contemporaneously in the Odessa-American that, “While Friedman and company’s musical and lyrical combinations are pleasing, the real beauty in ‘Under the Double Ego’ is the song’s imagery and melodic, sensitive poetry. The album says life can be joyful, life can be tragic, and a lot of wishing goes on in between. Friedman has painted a water color world in song, tinted with the mellow grays of sadness and the pastels of contentment.”
David Hinckley didn’t see things in the same way, but his grief was that the album was missing the shock factor and the performance art of earlier material. “Some of the mad, euphoric energy is gone, dissolved into a lot of quiet ballads. He’s still got a keen eye for irony…an okay album for old fans but no way to win new ones,” he concluded in his review for the New York Daily News.
What they’re both trying to describe is an album that is clever without being overtly funny. This is a collection of folk songs that rely on well crafted lyrics, and Kinky delivers the melodies without ever raising his energy above campfire singalong mode. It’s reminiscent of listening to “High On Jesus,” but finding there isn’t a punchline. If you are a brash New Yorker, like David Hinckley, who grew up on Kinky’s raucous shows at the Lone Star Cafe in the village, you might say this is an okay album. But, if you don’t require your irony to be as on the nose as “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” then you will discover an an exceptional album crafted by Kinky Friedman the songwriter instead of Kinky Friedman the performer.
Tequila Old Fashioned
One of the arenas Kinky’s meandering professional path took him to was the world of celebrity liquor brands and for a handful of years he hawked the Man in Black tequila, which paired nicely with the hand-rolled cigars he was selling. Getting your hands on a bottle of Man in Black Extra Añejo is ideal, but the last bottle I found Kinky handed to me himself during a tasting at the Cactus Cafe. More importantly, use an añejo tequila. These have aged for one to three years in oak barrels and have a dark amber color and rich flavors of vanilla, tobacco, and dried fruit that are ideal for an old fashioned. Serve in a rocks glass with one large cube of ice.
Ingredients
- 3 oz anejo tequila
- 1/4 oz agave nectar
- 1 dash bitters
- orange peel
- cherry
Directions
- Mix tequila, agave nectar, and bitters in glass
- Add large ice cube
- Garnish with orange peel and cherry
