Kinky Friedman

The Texas singer/songwriter community has always championed their outlaws and eccentrics, but few Lone Star country artists have built a career out of creative outrage like Kinky Friedman. While capable of writing smart and perceptive tunes about life's other side, he's best known for pointedly satirical numbers that revel in creative lowbrow humor and sharp satire. Friedman's first three albums -- 1973's Sold American, 1974's Kinky Friedman, and 1976's Lasso from El Paso -- were attempts to fuse his rollicking blend of country, rock, and boogie with major-label production values, while the lion's share of his later independent releases captured his playful anarchy in more natural, live settings (1992's Old Testaments & New Revelations and 2007's Live from Austin, TX). Friedman returned to serious record making with the relatively thoughtful and downbeat The Loneliest Man I Ever Met in 2015. The self-released Circus of Life followed in 2018.