Otis Lee Crenshaw: Live

Rich Hall spent the turn of the millennium letting an ex-con country singer hijack his act. Otis Lee Crenshaw is a gravel-voiced Tennessee jailbird with a Confederate flag bandana and a habit of marrying women named Brenda. Hall plays the alter ego straight. The performance serves as both an affectionate parody of Southern outlaws and a vehicle for tightly constructed musical comedy.

Filmed in London in 2001, the release arrived shortly after the Crenshaw persona earned Hall the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. Accompanied by a two-piece acoustic band called the Black Liars, Hall mixes confrontational crowd work with deadpan songwriting. He questions the lyrical logic of Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” and vents about Garth Brooks. He also details the tragic life of a child burdened with the name “Incest Boy” due to a hospital clerical error.