Track Listing

1. My Name Is Jorge
2. Roll & Tumble
3. 1st In Line
4. Foggy Blossom (Mechanical Bride)
5. The Bridge
6. Ants On The Melon (With Due Regards To Virginia Adair)
7. Hellhounds
8. Blankets
9. Short Guy Spiritual Rap (Short Guy From 'Chi-Town')
10. Bottle & A Dime
11. Right In The Head
12. Ham-Fisted Box Of Gloves
13. The Prayer That Fell Upon The Mirror
14. Best Of Me
15. Sweet Nutty
16. Ceiling's Leaking
17. Smoke Bend

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134658 in Music
• Released on: 2002-09-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
The Gourds go beyond the constraints of alt-country, forging into new territory--call it country dada. Tex-Mex with a dash of Cajun, a handful of honky-tonk, and some rockin' and rollin', the 17 engaging tunes on Cow Fish Fowl or Pig crawl into your brain, lay eggs, and hatch; once they're in there, it's hard to get them out. Opener "My Name Is Jorge," uptempo with mandolin, acoustic guitar, accordion, harmonica, upright bass, and drums, sets the tone--it's something like the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," with a not-so-humble fruit-seller in the role of Satan, and witty yet bizarre references to selling apples to William S. Burroughs and lemons to Henry S. Ford. "Foggy Blossoms" gets naughty, with the completely reasonable zaniness of a French surrealist chase film, circa 1924. Make no mistake, though, this is Americana. "Blankets" drops the joking tone for soaring, bittersweet old-timey. That rootsiness sticks on the spirited "Right in the Head," with its opening couplet "If you don't pay me back forget it / I won't track you down." Cow Fish is madcap fun--track it down. --Jillian Steinberger

Customer Reviews

Best album of 2002
That's right, the best album of 2002. Being a fan of all the past Gourds albums I knew I would not be disapointed. But this, this album is packed full of great great songwriting. There is not a bad tune here. In the past I would give a Gourds album 3 1/2 to 4 stars. There might be a few clunkers here and there, but here the guys pull it all together. I have not stopped playing it since the day it first came out. You have everything from The Band sounding "Ham-fisted box of gloves" to the very funny and clever "My name is Jorge". Do yourself a favor and forget about Bruce's new album (3 stars) forget about Pettty's new album (2 1/2 Stars) and even Steve Earls new album (3 stars) and pick up "Cow fish fowl pig" (5 Stars) and have a good time.

It'll cure what ails ya!
Talk about a band paying off! This has all that makes the Gourds great concentrated in one place. A natural progression from where the band started, it just blows the doors off genre and mixes and matches with abandon. The only artist it reminds me of Tom Waits but only in so much the music is really steeped in musicianship and the words comes from some backwoods poetry reading. Kev delivers some suprising tracks with the swing of "Mechanical Bride", the saucy "Ants on A Melon", and the cajun rock of "Bottle & Dime". Jimmy really kicks his surrealistic bucket with the shaggy dog tale of Jorge, the brilliant ramble of "The Bridge", and the Stonesy but not "Ceiling's Leaking". Max is perfecting a sound which while not the same as his fellow songwriters is solid and complimentary. This time they really blend rather than stand away like his songs from the very good Bolsa. I especially like the solid country pop of "Best Of Me" and the canjun shuffle of "Smokey Bend" (which if my guess is right, it's sung by his dad!). Want more highlights? Roll and Tumble, Hellhounds, Blankets...it's just one great song after another! Granted, Sweet Nutty is more amusing to me than anything and, I really didn't need to hear the spiritual guy raps more than once. I think this album is a why The Gourds are far and away from the pack. It leaves me a one big happy wreck! How many albums can you say that about?

Captures the Live Gourds Sound Best
To me, it is absolutely amazing that the Gourds made such a perfectly produced album, that sounded so live at the same time without a producer in the studio. With this album as opposed to the others, Max takes a more firm role in the band with his poignant songwriting like in "Blankets". We also see the new directions that songwriters Jimmy Smith and Kevin Russel are taking. Kevin is going for a more rollicking, Texas-Louisiana feel, but experimenting at the same time with a classic rocker like "Sweet Nutty". Jimmy's songs "Hellhounds" and "My name is Jorge" are wonderful rambling stories. While "Bridges" and "Ceiling Leaking" rock more-- they also sway more towards his vague, surreal, cool metaphors. "The Prayer that Fell Upon a Mirror" is exactly that with a dissonant mexican feel that reminds me some of "Coppermine" off of Stadium Blitzer. Kevin also throws in surreal poetry with "Foggy Blossoms, Mechanical Brides", and "Hamfisted Box of Gloves". This album also showcases Claude Bernard's versatile accordion work better than any of their previous albums-- which could be a product of the great production. Overall, I would say-- GET THIS CD! You won't find a more diverse, versatile, cohesive, and fun mix than The Gourds of Austin, TX.