Country music is an oft maligned creature and quite often for good reason. The big haired women, the men in the rhinestone suits, and the songs about truck drivers, railroad trains, cheating wives, and prison all make it an easy target for ridicule. During times when musicians in other forms of popular music have actually taken risks and tired something new, Country always seems to deliberately become even more conservative.
Perhaps because of its roots in the south, mid-west and the Bible Belt of the United States, Country music seems to be quicker than most to wrap itself in the flag, call upon God, and believe in my country right or wrong. I have to admit that attitude has alienated me more than anything else from the music. Quite a lot of the old time country music really appealed to me actually, but all that talk of Jesus and America was a little off putting to a Canadian urban Jew.
"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" and "In The Sweet Bye & Bye" are great tunes, but lyrically there wasn't much there to which I could relate. Even guys like Kris Kristofferson turned into Sunday morning, hangover Christians. One moment he'd be singing "Me And Bobby McGee" and "The Pilgrim" and then the next guilt-ridden stuff like "Why Me Lord?" 
It wasn't until well after the heyday of his career, that I discovered the one man who could have reached out to me and helped bridge that cultural divide. Even when I did finally hear the name Kinky Friedman his playing days were well behind him. I never had the opportunity to see Kinky Friedman And The Texas Jewboys during their heyday, but they left behind a catalogue of song titles including the likes of "I'm Proud To Be An Asshole From El Passo," "Ride 'Em Jewboy," and "They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore," that not only intrigued me but has kept my curiosity piqued for the last twenty years.
Thirty-two years ago, in November of 1975, Kinky and The Texas Jewboys recorded an episode of the famed television show Austin City Limits. Unbeknown to anyone at the time, they created history that night; it is still the one and only concert filmed for the show that has never aired. For reasons that have never been explained, the powers that be decided that the delicate sensitivities of the American public wouldn't have been able to handle the performance. But somehow or other a tape of that show has managed to survive, and the good folk at New West Records have just released a DVD version of Kinky Friedman: Live From Austin Tx.
Article comments
1 - Laura in Austin
"They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore"
I believe it's actually "They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore."