Search - Mulehead :: Gospel Accordion 2

The guitars crunch, but they're spry more so than heavy. The lyrics are lighthearted but by no means frivolous. The songs feel very much like country songs at heart, even if they sometimes sound like country songs with their fingers in the wall socket. Welcome to Kevin Kerby's Mulehead, a thrilling Little Rock, Arkansas, cowpunk quartet that resides in a world where Jesus lives above the liquor store. Kerby's conflicted lyrics seem suspicious (but not dismissive) of Christianity, although if he truly felt jaded, perhaps he wouldn't sing about religion in so many of his songs. "I've heard it said the gospel call will come to you in slumber / I was at the bar, you know, and they didn't leave a number," he sings in "Out Here in the Pines." On "Glad to Be Here," he explains, "I read the Bible cover to cover / It don't say nothin' about a girl like you." "Pilate" is your classic country shuffle from the point of view of a misunderstood outlaw: "Well, my name is Pilate and I have your king / I wash my hands to the whole damn thing / What could I do, I'm just one man / Why I'm in hell, I don't understand." You don't know whether to say "amen" or "another round," but you get the sense that either is acceptable. --Marc Greilsamer