The plot is gloriously simple. Sheldon and his partner in crime, the singer Crystal Carr, chase a turkey. They chase it across the day itself, and eventually to a Dallas Cowboys game, because in Texas the turkey must be pursued in the direction of American football. It is a cartoon chase with a country-pop engine, and it moves at the speed of a man who has smelled gravy.<\/p>
The arrangement is where the cleverness hides. Carr takes the melody and sings it with an upbeat, sunlit conviction that would not embarrass a proper chart contender. She treats the song as if it matters, which is the only way to sell a joke. Sheldon, meanwhile, does what the great comic foils have always done and wanders through the music like a drunk uncle at a wedding, interrupting, muttering and commenting on the action. His spoken-word bits are not laid politely on top of the track. They are woven into it, a bit like Vivian Stanshall turning up uninvited to a barbecue. The two voices rub against each other with real chemistry: she is the sunshine, he is the cloud of cheerful chaos drifting in front of it.<\/span><\/p> Then the lyrics are doubled, a studio trick usually reserved for moody guitar bands and sulking Scandinavians. Here it gives the chorus a thick, shoulder-slapping punch, as though the whole table has joined in. The recording was done in Atlanta and mixed at Justin Pierce Music back in Dallas, where Pierce and Carr handled the musical production. The result is cleaner and more muscular than a novelty record has any right to be. Nobody involved appears to have regarded the fart jokes as an excuse for sloppiness, and the fart jokes, which arrive with the regularity of a Swiss train, are delivered with proper comic timing. I would not call them sophisticated. I would call them honest, and in a year of po-faced posturing, honesty with a whoopee-cushion is a tonic.<\/span><\/p> That warmth is the point. The world, as the man himself says, needs something upbeat, and “It’s Turkey Day” delivers cheer without cynicism or irony. It asks only that you spend time with your family, enjoy your life and eat far too much food. In this climate that counts as radical.<\/span><\/p> Mashugana has been busy, too. “Monster Mash” has already been given his treatment, a “Jingle Bells” followed on the first of November, and television work in Santa Fe awaits. The man is quietly building a calendar of comic songs, and this is the jewel of the autumn.<\/span><\/p> Five stars, then, and a second helping of stuffing. Play it loud at the table, and keep the turkey well away from the speakers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/sheldonmashugana.com\/<\/a>\n\n\n\n\n
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