A Review of Wailin’ Jennings’
Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Linguists
by Praenomen Gentilicium Cognomen, Esq.
Well-known kʌn.trɪ.n.wɛs.tʌrn star Wailin’ Jennings—son of famed rhotacism and blues crooner Moanin’ Jennings and grandson of beloved buggie-wuggie icon Hollerin’ Jennings—has released a groundbreaking new album. This, his tenth album in a twenty-three year career, is poised to become his artistically and stylistically most successful effort yet. Jennings has masterfully blended studio phonology, live morphology, and engineered syntax to create some of the slickest music ever made, without ever veering into “over-produced” territory, as is so common among artists with less history, less integrity, less philology. His music is vibrant, sonorant, resonant, even sibilant at times, but never schmaltzy or schwaltzy.
After rocketing up the LSA kʌn.trɪ.n.wɛs.tʌrn charts, Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Linguists has been #1 for six weeks in a row, and deservedly so. The title track is a soulful ballad in the classic kʌn.trɪ.n.wɛs.tʌrn style. Eschewing the cross-over-friendly pop elements that have fueled the rise of Koine Chesney, Keith Urheim, Falsetto Hill, and Triller Swift, Jennings showcases the kind of talent that made his own heroes, George Stratification and Willy Nasalson, household names in their day.
Other noteworthy tracks include “I Lost My Case Marker in Nashville” and “Hobo Honorifics”, though there are really no weak tracks on this album. Even the short wordless piece—“Instrumental Case”—features beautiful slide guitars and electric violins. It brought a tear to this jaded reviewer’s eye.
Overall, this is a wonderful album that I can’t recommend highly enough. I rate it 5 out of 5 glottal stops! ʔʔʔʔʔ
