Skin and Bone
2004
H.M.S. Mondegreen
About This Album
Chicago-via-Newcastle, England singer/songwriter Kennedy Greenrod -- aka the Thin Man -- pays a visit to the Transylvanian tin pan alley with his sophomore release H.M.S. Mondegreen. Armed with accordions, guitars, banjos, cellos and the occasional flugelhorn, Greenrod and his Windy City cohorts summon the ghosts of Johnny Cash and Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits, resulting in an terrific sideshow specializing in country-folk reflection and boot stomping tarantellas. There's a cinematic quality -- the tasty opener, "Til the Good Lord Shows His Face," sounds like a lost song from Robert Altman's Popeye -- that seeps through the record's many dusty staircases and broken floorboards, providing an ambience that complement's Greenrod's lazy Robyn Hitchcock-meets-Mark Sandman drawl. Whether it's the sparse indie folk of "Warm Hands" or the rousing -- and strangely upbeat -- dirge "OK Fine," the Thin Man never fails to engage. H.M.S. Mondegreen may not sparkle with studio magic and instrumental wizardry, but it glows with the warmth of near-drunk musicians gathered around a gypsy campfire, and the fact that it feels as accessible to the weary traveler as it does a twelve-toed carny makes it that much more unique. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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