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All Music Guide review "How Freedom Sounds":
At first glance, the comedy duo Red State Update may look like a Blue Collar Comedy Tour ripoff, but they're the darlings of progressive online magazine Salon.com and on the buddy list of "those liberal nonproliferationists" CNN. Thanks to their video submission, it was on said cable news network that young bumpkin Dunlap (played by Jonathan Shockley) and the overalled, Uncle Jesse-esque Jackie Broyles (Travis Harmon) got to ask the Democratic presidential hopefuls about Al Gore, drawing a tongue-in-cheek insult from Joe Biden plus an appearance from Mike Gravel on their YouTube channel. A series of videos posted to the video-sharing site earned the two a sizable following, so it isn't much of a surprise that they would strike while the iron is hot and get to cashing in. What is a surprise is how their debut CD satisfies with hilarious novelty songs being added to the act alongside their usual commentaries. Here Jackie and Dunlap skillfully execute their layered, ironic style, which is Stephen Colbert meets Kinky Friedman on the set of Hee Haw. There's jibber-jabbering about the Bonnaroo-bound hippies who pass through Jackie's store in Tennessee and impressions of various celebrities fishing their wristwatches out of clogged garbage disposals, including Peter Ustinov and Michael Douglas "of Jewel of the Nile fame." While these down-home exchanges are just as entertaining as their videos, the wonderful songs are what make the CD so easy to recommend. The cowardly rave-up "Iraq (I Don't Wanna Go)" features the great "Two things in Iraq you'll never find/WMDs and my behind" plus the sage advice that "Iraqi porn is awful." "Noodles, Powder, Water & Meat" is Jackie's moving ode to "hamburger dinner in a box," and Dunlap's quest for that ever so rare "Stripper Without a Kid" shouldn't be missed. Well-rounded with amusing talk and belly-laugh songs, How Freedom Sounds is an essential album for fans of kickass political commentary or anyone who quits his job once Talladega time rolls around.
David Jeffries, All Music Guide