Jonathan Byrd Cackalack

JONATHAN BYRD

Cackalack

Waterburg 92

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Have no idea what “Cackalack” means? Neither did I until I got the latest release from Jonathan Byrd, a seventh-generation North Carolinian. It seems that “Cackalacky” is colorful regional slang for his home state, which would make him the eponymous Cackalack. It’s fine record as well as a linguistics lesson, a mix of Country and bluegrass-tinged folk music that reminded me of young John Prine. Remember the old Prine standard “Yes, I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You?” Bryd’s equivalent is “Reckon I Do,” a return to Bad Boy Country, where there were delightful dollops of corniness. (That’s all smoothed over by studio slickness these days!) And we get some of those delicious hill folks heavy-handed metaphors, such as a prescription of “Chicken Wire” to keep straying “hens” from venturing too far from the “coop.” (Get it?) And Bryd goes positively Prine with “Dungarees Overalls,” a half-loving, half-skewering look at redneck culture.

Don’t get me wrong; Bryd is no carbon copy of John Prine and he doesn’t seek to be. We’re talking about the spirit and vibe of the music here. There are flashes of sentimentality (“Father’s Day”), a lovely song of longing (“Scuppersong”), and no less than two songs built upon oak tree metaphors. It’s all as unpretentious as Byrd claims life is in his section of old Cackalacky.