Tyler Childers Produces Carlisle’s ‘Universal Bubba’ — SkimNews
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- The Universal Bubba is Willi Carlisle’s double album, drawing on the Ozarks and Appalachia to portray people shaped by meaningful work, chosen or born family, and humor rather than political stereotypes.
- Tyler Childers produced the record, marking the first time he has produced an album other than his own; he and Carlisle found a musical and spiritual kinship after meeting while Carlisle supported Childers on tour in Australia.
- Food Stamps joined Childers and Carlisle in a makeshift studio in New Orleans’ Bywater District to record The Universal Bubba, a record described as both “otherworldly and hilariously real.”
- Marlboro Vinyasa mixes Eastern religion and yerba mate with bourbon, while “Master’s Hammer” pairs affection for country with Carlisle’s “brutal as hell” critique.
- Amanda Shires plays fiddle on “Bigger’n Dallas”; banjo and fiddle anchor the record, which also swings to accordion on “Old Milwaukee Onestep.”
- Golden Dragon Buffet turns Carlisle’s end-of-life prayer into a request to be sliced up and tossed into fried rice, alongside wishes for business, health, passion, divorce, imitation crab and moo-shoo-pork.
Why it matters: For Carlisle, Childers’s first production of another artist’s record adds a central collaborator: Childers and Food Stamps helped record the project in the Bywater District, while Carlisle wrote from the Ozarks and Appalachia. The double album gives listeners country roots and absurdist humor instead of the one-dimensional rural America stereotypes the review rejects.
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