This album purports to be based on the work of a real-life renegade from Tyrone who mysteriously disappeared without trace in 1986. His exploits included armed robbery, fighting for the Germans in WWII, illegal gold-mining in Mexico and starting a family in Ireland in his 70s just as he was reconciled with his father. Your regular Tyrone bloke then.
What a pity that this inventive story didn’t inspire Omagh man Slaggart to do a little more than singing in a phoney American accent on a bunch of “original” but clichéd country tunes with lyrics that sometimes smack of pre-pubescent humour and silly macho posturing. It’s impossible to listen to ‘Cannibal Farm’ without hearing ‘A Boy Named Sue’ niggling in the background, and ‘Panzer Brigade’ has echoes of Marty Robbins’ ‘El Paso’. The songs work best when Slaggart eases off his cod accent and sings it a bit straighter, as in ‘Tokyo Rose’ and ‘The Killer Line 1929’. There’s some fine playing from the ever-excellent Bill Shanley and James Blennerhasset on guitar and bass respectively and their input works really well when Slaggart drops the codology.
This was a potentially interesting project that some creative thinking could have turned into a cracker. Maybe someone should have called a ceasefire. File under 'Jumbo Breakfast Roll'.