The best thing about these early country & Western yarns are how (deliberately) funny they are. Modern country, it seems to me, revolves around ballads and plays it pretty straight - a lot of the humor has been drilled out. But it’s hard to listen to these goofy songs without a smile on your face. All the yips, yodels, and hambone slaps, tales of jailhouses and shoe-shiners...you can tell the singers are playing up the cornpone silliness of it all. And how great is that Leon McAuliffe solo?