Pug Johnson grew up just 30 minutes away from the Louisiana border in Beaumont, Texas, and it’s clear listening to his latest record, El Cabron, that much of that Cajun music managed to waft its way into that oil town. Across nearly a dozen tracks, Johnson deftly blends Texas country and swing with Cajun music and even a little Tejano from across another Texas border.
The album is an exercise in writing and singing about what moves you with no intention of trying to impress anyone or jump on any current trends, and the result is remarkably fun to hear. From the opening track “Big Trains” – a fantastic character song about a 6’4” guy who drives trains and stirs up shit – to the album closer, “Time Well Wasted” – a piano fronted, honky tonk/rock song that would make Leon Russell beam and happens to perfectly sum up the record – the album is pure musical exuberance. In between, Johnson sings about a drifter with a fondness for booze (particularly Singapore Slings) on the laid-back, brass-backed title track (translated as The Bastard), a guy dreaming about winning the lottery and buying his Louisiana love a bayou (“Buy Me A Bayou”), a swamp funk classic in the making complete with squeezebox, and a great cover of a song Johnny Paycheck made famous (“Thanks to the Cat House (I’m in the Doghouse with You))” almost five decades ago.
The one real outlier on the record, “Change Myself Today,” comes almost at the tail end and finds Johnson singing earnestly about trying to make things right, backed with minimal musical arrangements.
Though the title character only shows up in the song “El Cabron,” you can’t help but feel “The Bastard” is interacting with every other character on this album. Throughout, you can hear the influences of everyone from Jerry Jeff Walker to John Prine and Roger Miller. Ultimately, the album is a nearly flawless exercise in just having as much fun as possible in the recording studio.
