Live: Ralph’s Last Show

Amazon.com

In their inimitable 1958 Wayne touring bus, stuffed with flea-market couches and a propane stove, Fred Eaglesmith and the Flying Squirrels have spent the last decade descending from Canada to play any venue that will have them. These two discs generously capture the fury and fun of their live gigs, despite the track fade-outs and the absence of Eaglesmith’s hilarious between-song storytelling. The set includes the previously unrecorded (for good reason) novelty tunes “White Trash,” “Big Hair,” and “How’s Ernie?” yet another car song “Benchseat Baby,” but also “John Deere” and “Carmelita,” rare gems that stand with the best of Eaglesmith’s working-class portraits. He growls and snarls through every line, while his cohorts–including human salvage yard Washboard Hank, distortion-pedal-loving mandolinist Willie P. Bennett, and harmony vocalist and bassist Ralph Schipper (whose last show the set documents)–rock like punks on a mission. –Roy Kasten