Charlie Burton [extended]

• Is That Charlie Burton or What?!?! [Wild, 1982] B+
• I Heard That [Wild, 1986] B+
• Green Cheese [Wild, 1990] *
• Puke Point at the Juke Joint [Wild, 1991]
• Rustic Fixer Upper [Lazy SOB, 1998] ***
• One Man's Trash: The Charlie Burton Story 1977-1999 [Bulldog, 1999] A-
• Salad [Wild, 2006] *

See Also:

• Charlie Burton and the Cut-Outs
• Charlie Burton and the Hiccups
• Charlie Burton and the Texas Twelve Steppers
• Charlie Burton & the Dorothy Lynch Mob

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Charlie Burton and the Cut-Outs: Is That Charlie Burton or What?!?! [Wild, 1982]
Burton's only competition among nouveau rockabilly composers is the Blasters' Dave Alvin, and like almost anyone with a knack for song form in 1982 he's flexible. In fact, his only remaining link to pure rockabilly is a fondness for novelty numbers like the factual "Rabies Shots" and the utterly heretical "Breathe for Me, Presley!," and in the end his sense of humor is his limitation. In rock and roll of any kind you have to sing better than Robert Klein. B+

Charlie Burton and the Hiccups: I Heard That [Wild, 1986]
The Hiccups make with good old guitar, bass, and drums while Charlie fakes some rockabilly up front, and when it works it's quite catchy in an utterly received sort of way. The conservatism isn't annoying or boring because although Charlie loves this music--listen to "One Man's Trash"--he doesn't give a damn for roots or form. He just wants to write some songs. I'm not sorry he doesn't share my liberal respect for Vietnam and world hunger, and when he diddleybops through his parents' coronaries I know why. Inspirational Verse: "Water's thick, but blood is thicker/Daddy (Mommy) had a bum, bum ticker." B+

Charlie Burton and the Hiccups: Green Cheese [Wild, 1990]
mooning his love life, mooning the world ("Without My Woman . . . ," "Anyone I Know?) *

Charlie Burton and the Hiccups: Puke Point at the Juke Joint [Wild, 1991]

Charlie Burton and the Texas Twelve Steppers: Rustic Fixer Upper [Lazy SOB, 1998]
"She's the sugar in my gastank" and other funny lines ("Baby Let's Play God," "Livin' on Borrowed Time [Livin' on Borrowed Money]") ***

One Man's Trash: The Charlie Burton Story 1977-1999 [Bulldog, 1999]
Since the dawn of the Sex Pistols, it's been art-for-art's-sake for this poet of song, whose evocations of succubi, coronary thrombosis, garbage, manners and morals, dead chickens in the middle of the road, and the varieties of romantic disaster have thrilled and enlightened music lovers in university towns cum state capitals from Lincoln, Nebraska, all the way to Austin, Texas. 'Tis oft claimed he can't sing a lick, but this well-culled collection demonstrates that he's learned to croon a slurp, not to mention rock a bite in the ass. And lest anyone whine about perpetual adolescence, he goes out proving how much he's grown in human understanding: "Without my woman," he intones gravely, "I'd be a hopeless sack of shit." A-

Charlie Burton & the Dorothy Lynch Mob: Salad [Wild, 2006]
Repatriated Nebraskan jokes around for love (or lack thereof) ("I Wonder: Is Propecia Right for Me?" "Apples & Oranges"). *