Rodney Carrington - Greatest Hits (CD)

All Music Guide

Country comedian and comic singer Rodney Carrington hasn't had any hits, greatest or otherwise, in the conventionally accepted sense of the term. But Greatest Hits is a twodisc compilation drawn from four albums Hangin' with Rodney (its tracks licensed from Mercury Records), Morning Wood, Live: C'mon Laugh You Bastards, and Nut Sack. The first disc features Carrington's nonsinging standup comedy, the second songs. Carrington has enjoyed commercial success with his albums by presenting redneck humor with a heavy complement of vulgar sexual commentary, poor taste (in "Growing Up Poor Toughskins Jeans," he makes fun of the Kennedy assassination), and bouts of intolerance toward AsianAmericans and, especially, homosexuals. Indeed, his obsession with gay people evidences an extreme homophobia that might benefit from therapy. But then, his comedy routines probably are that therapy, though they don't help him overcome his problems. He covers much the same ground in his songs, while introducing musical satires as he sets his lyrics to everything from TexMex to Frankie Lainestyle Western pop, and even (on one of two versions of "Letter to My Penis"), Frank Sinatrastyle traditional pop swagger. Despite his vulgarity, Carrington reveals a wide streak of sentimentality, making it clear how dependent he is on his wife, and on the albumending song "Things We Didn't Know," one of two new tracks, he drops the joking completely in favor of a sincere, and cloying, tribute to his family. But maybe that shouldn't be a surprise; he's spent a lot of the album demonstrating that, despite his potty mouth, he's really just a softie.

- William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide