Banjo & Sullivan

Banjo & Sullivan

The Ultimate Collection 1972-1978 (Hip-O)

Beatlemaniacs have the Rutles, headbangers have Spinal Tap, and now sister-screwing NASCAR fans have Banjo & Sullivan. Straddling – and I do mean straddling – the fine line between parody and tribute, B&S's Ultimate Collection is a randy "Dick Soup" of X-rated twang so lasciviously convincing it hardly matters that the duo never actually existed. For the record, they're pickin' and singin' lambs to the slaughter in Rob Zombie's new movie The Devil's Rejects, voiced on LP by Austin's Jesse Dayton and a crew of local session ringers. It amounts to Dayton's last album, 2004's Country Soul Brother, filtered through the average issue of Hustler, or a peep show into B&S's tawdry, albeit fictional, existence. "Dick Soup" documents their tendency to get booked at male-only venues, "Honeymoon Song" details a smorgasbord of S&M far removed from regular "country boy sex," and "I'm at Home Getting Hammered (While She's Out Getting Nailed)" examines differing interpretations of trailer-park nuptials. A scary-good bluegrass cover of "Freebird" bends the Soggy Bottom Boys over a barrel and sodomizes the ever-lovin' shit out of them. So while the Dukes of Hazzard may be the hot hillbillies du jour, Banjo & Sullivan are worth a yee-haw or three – and a nice long shower afterward.