Banjo & Sullivan

If it weren’t for Hillgrass Bluebilly, I might not have found this fantastic fictional band, which was featured (and murdered) in Rob Zombie’s movie The Devil’s Rejects. The songs here were actually written and recorded by Texas troubadour Jesse Dayton, whom I saw perform at a Hillgrass show this past July. Dayton played one song from this album, “I’m at Home Getting Hammered (While She’s Out Getting Nailed),” and I ran right over to the merch booth and bought the CD, praying it wouldn’t be the usual deal where there’s one good song on the album and the rest of it sucks. But this whole disc is great — from the cheeky, plucked swagger of “Dick Soup” to the creepy country murder ballad “Killer on the Lamb” to the cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” that closes the album (complete with the most bombastic banjo duel ever recorded). Can I get a yee-haw?