Fans of the esoteric, whimsical and, frankly daft have had many reasons over the years to thank Jonny Trunk and he’s come up trumps again, remastering and re-releasing Leona Anderson’s 1958, erm, whatever the opposite of masterpiece is.
Like a lot of people I suspect I first heard of Leona Anderson via Danny Baker playing the magisterial Rats In My Room on a fairly regular basis. It took me a long while to track down a slightly dodgy quality copy of the album, so to have it in proper glory is a delight. Sort of. For anyone not familiar, Leona Anderson’s distinctive and tuneless holler featured as an act on 50’s US TV and radio, principally Ernie Kovacs’ ground- (and fourth wall-) breaking TV shows. The album’s a mix of murdered classics and equally gruesome mad-aunt-in-the attic originals. But mainly it’s a lot of fun. If you like a good novelty album then seek it out. But maybe give it listen first, eh?
Matt Hopkinson appears courtesy of http://www.soundsxp.com