Country comedian
Tim Wilson is at pains to explain that this concept record differs from his previous efforts, which mixed standup comedy with country-styled novelty songs. Here, he has constructed a parody of the television program Soul Train, dating back to the 1970s, complete with songs arranged to sound like Gamble & Huff soul records, commercials, and an announcer, "Corny Donelius," meant to ape Soul Train host Don Cornelius.
Wilson, whose humor has had racist elements, is careful to print a disclaimer in the CD booklet in which he protests his affection for soul. "I take this music as seriously as I do the National Anthem and at no time have I approached this project disrespectfully in terms of the music or the culture from which that great music came," he writes solemnly. Indeed, the music itself, played by the Muscle Shoals session band, closely parallels the soul music of the period (as you can tell from the instrumental versions that pad the end of the disc), and while "The Shoals Plane," as
Wilson calls the show, clearly evokes Soul Train, his humor, oddly enough, is not directed at the program. That's only a frame in which he addresses his usual subjects, such as NASCAR (an attack on driver Ward Burton's speech impediment) and redneck lifestyles ("Trailer Love"). It's an odd juxtaposition in which the subject matter is almost totally disconnected from the music. And adding to the confusion is
Wilson's complete inability to impersonate anyone. His Corny Donelius never sounds like Don Cornelius, it just sounds like
Wilson; so do the other characters he comes up with. He may genuinely care for '70s soul, but that isn't the same thing as being able to sing it.
Wilson is completely out of his depth here, and, worst of all, he isn't funny. ~ William Ruhlmann