Kinky Friedman’s New Album Explores the “Circus of Life”

Live and still photos by Brian Kanof

It’s taken Kinky Friedman four decades to release an album of all original music. The wait has certainly been worth it. “Circus of Life,” which will be released on July 6, is a stirring, old-time country music album.

Friedman eschews his usual satirical subject matter for more earnest yet no less endearing fare, and “Circus of Life” shows that the Texan is a true American singer-songwriter/storyteller/country music treasure in the tradition of early Kris Kristofferson and Leonard Cohen.

The album’s many highlights include a tribute to Friedman’s good friend Willie Nelson (“Autographs in the Rain”), who inspired Friedman to write the album; “Spitfire,” about a World War II fighter pilot; and “Jesus in Pajamas,” which was inspired by a true story.

The delicate “Back to Grace,” sung in his signature world-weary baritone, could be about Friedman finding his way back to a woman, or to a state of grace. That’s the beauty of Friedman’s poetic songs on “Circus of Life.” They’re open to the listener’s interpretation.

Friedman is extremely proud of the album, as he states below. He has every right to be. It’s a welcome departure from the overproduced, homogenized pop in disguise that passes today as “modern country.” “Circus of Life” is, in short, a work of art, and a fine one at that.

Friedman will be up this way on July 10 at Monty Hall in Jersey City. For more info go to https://montyhall.ticketfly.com/

We recently had the pleasure of speaking to the legendary, amiable and extremely witty raconteur.

What motivated you to make your first album of all-original material in 40 years?

I was sitting around the ranch around three in the morning one day watching “Matlock” and I get a phone call from my shrink Willie Nelson. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was watching “Matlock.” He said that's a sure sign of depression. Then he says turn “Matlock” off and start writing songs. I hadn’t written in many years, decades, and I wrote 12 songs within one month. I think they’d been percolating for many years without being written. I think this could be a really great record.

The first song I wrote, “Jesus in Pajamas,” was based on a true incident that happened to me in Dallas. I was in a Denny’s and at 3:16 in the morning a really screwed up-looking guy walked in, but his eyes looked like Jesus. A voice told me help him if you can. But I didn’t because he was kind of drooling and I was broke so I left and I felt very guilty immediately and I came back three minutes later and the guy was gone. Nobody had seen him which was surprising because he was wearing pajamas.

“Circus of Life” is not what one may expect from Kinky Friedman. It’s more somber than satirical.

I’ve deliberately broken every rule I could in my career. If it ain’t broke, break it. The big successes coming out of Nashville right now are really bad music, something you’d hear as background music at a frat party. It’s really homogenized and sanitized so much that you don’t have a real song you just have production, and overproduction.

The publishing houses down there are like corporate brothels, where they have committees writing the songs. They’re very conscious of who they want to appeal to, whether its 16-year-old-girls or disc jockeys or Hollywood movie executives. I wanted to create something where the writing is between the lines, where you can think as you're listening to a song. “Circus of Life” is for people who love country music and are clever enough to know that the lyrics count and the music counts.

You’re on the most extensive tour of your career. How do you handle the grueling schedule?

There’s something else Willie said, that if you don’t take a night off you’ll begin to run on pure adrenaline and the shows will get very pure too. I think he’s right. It seems to be working. The shows are getting better and better. The audiences are really loving the new material. It’s from the heart. You put the record into the universe and hope it will find its listeners.