Kinky Friedman: Lasso from El Paso

[CD booklet] [CD back cover]

Of the many albums that grew out of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, this must be the strangest. Friedman has a husky voice and an off-kilter sense of humor best captured on the live-from-the-revue track, "Sold American." Also notable for a version of the Bob Dylan outtake, "Catfish."
-- William Ruhlmann, All-Music Guide

Read more about Kinky Friedman and Lasso from El Paso at the Kinky Friedman WWW site.

Two of the tracks on this album, "Kinky" and "Ben Lucas", were recorded in Shangri-La studios in 1976 during the time Rick was recording Rick Danko and Eric Clapton was recording No Reason to Cry. According to Roberty's book on Clapton's recording sessions, the lineup for Ronnie Hawkins' "Kinky" and "Ol' Ben Lucas" was Clapton - dobro, Levon - drums, Rick - bass, Dr. John - toy piano on "Ol'Ben Lucas", with other instruments presumably overdubbed later. Rick and Levon's voices stand out pretty clearly among backing vocals on "Kinky". (Levon and Rick are both listed as backing vocalists in the credit list.) Richard Manuel is listed in the credit list as appearing on both keyboards and drums. Richard is on percussion on the song "Kinky", together with Ron Wood on slide guitar.

The rest of the songs were recorded in Houston, TX, except for track 1, a live recording with Bob Dylan and The Rolling Thunder Revue, Ft. Collins, Colorado. Rick's brother Terry Danko and Ronnie Hawkins appear somewhere on the Houston numbers, but the only Bandster on the Houston cuts is Richard, who is listed as appearing on keyboards.

Tracks

1.	Sold Americans (K.Friedman)
2.	Twinkle (K.Friedman)
3.	Ahab the Arab (R.Stevens)
4.	Dear Abbie (Friedman)
5.	Kinky (R.Hawkins)		(2.9MB)
6.	Lady Yesterday (K.Friedman)
7.	Catfish (B. Dylan/J.Levy)
8.	Men's Room L.A. (B.Fowler)
9.	Bananas and Cream (K.Friedman/J.Shelby)
10.	Ol' Ben Lucas (K.Friedman)		(1.6MB)
11.	The Ballad of Ira Hayes (P.LaFarge)
12.	Waitret Please Waitret (Friedman/Boles/West)

Sidemen

• Jim Atkinson, guitar
• Terry Balin, vocal
• Major Boles, drums
• "Fiddlin' Frenchie" Bourke, violin
• Gary Burke, drums
• T-Bone Burnette, guitar
• Eric Clapton, dobro/guitar
• Brian Clarke, bass
• Tom Culpepper, guitar
• Rick Danko, bass/vocal
• Terry Danko, bass
• Michael DeTemple, guitar
• Teddy Jack Eddy, drums
• Kinky Friedman, vocal
• Al Garth, violin
• Bill Ham, guitar
• Ronnie Hawkins, vocal
• Levon Helm, guitar
• Snakebite Jacobs, horn
• Dr. John, keyboards
• Ken Lauber, keyboards
• Richard Manuel, drums
• Roger McGuinn, banjo
• Darrell Norris, drums
• Mick Ronson, guitar
• Jewford Shelby, keyboards
• Ringo Starr, vocal
• Steven Soles, guitar
• Rob Stoner, bass
• Roscoe West, vocal
• Ira Wilkes, bass
• Ron Wood, guitar
• Howie Wyeth, drums
• Red Young, keyboards
• Rusty Young, steel guitar

Kinky Friedman - Lasso from El Paso - 20:24 - 1976 - Epic PE 34304
Compact Disc: Epic EPC 47 4609-2 (European Release)

AMG Rating: 8 (out of 9)