Owen Temple/Adam Carroll; July 9, 2009; Kiki’s House of Righteous Music

I knew Owen Temple was a good songwriter. During the time he spent in Madison as a graduate student in the psychology department, I saw him play many times, always enjoying his genial personality and perceptive songs about everyday life. I knew Adam Carroll was a good songwriter. Owen had sent me Adam’s latest Old Town Rock & Roll before their stop at the Alchemy last October. He had contacted me about playing at the house then but it was a volleyball night and I already had a few others things scheduled for that month. After seeing them that night I decided I would really like to host them next time through. Still, I had no idea how funny they were.

They played it straight for the first half of the set; Adam playing songs from Old Town and Owen choosing songs from his recent Dollars and Dimes. Going on the assumption that America can be divided not just into states and provinces, but into distinct regions that share a common way of life, he set out to write a song from each of those areas. For every song he had a collaborator, for “Broken Heart Land” his elegy to the Midwest he got some assistance from Madison’s own Jeff Burkhart (who somehow ended up with a gig tonight and missed the show, I’m still mad at him). That song, as well “Memphis Just Ain’t What It Used to Be,” “I Don’t Want to Do What I Do,” and the title track have an honesty and easy going charm that make this easily his best record yet.

Several of the songs were written with Adam who brought his terrific sense of words to every song he was a part of. For their shows, they alternate songs, Owen playing one then Adam. Unfailingly, Adam would preface every song with a long-winded, ambling story about the writing or recording of it, to the point where you just wanted to tell him to spit it out already. Any animosity was forgotten when he finally got around to playing the song, as they were all terrific. Apparently Adam doesn’t leave the state of Texas very often and a number of people who came to the show expressed their delight at my bringing them to Madison. In fact, one girl drove from the Boundary Waters town of Buyck, eight hours, just to come to the show.

Toward the end of the first set Owen confessed that in the time he and Adam have been touring together they’ve written a lot of songs. But these were the kind they realized they couldn’t release under their own name or it would ruin their careers. Thus Gary Floater was born. Gary Floater writes country songs, and he has singer in mind for every one of them. He doesn’t quite understand politics, he’s quick to anger, he mixes his metaphors and is probably dumber than you would guess. Since they didn’t want their name son this project anywhere, they became the Gary Floater cover band, Owen as Daryl Watkins and Adam as Puffy Dan Walters. In fact they created such a realistic back history for him that many of the folks at the show were convinced he was real. All of that was funny enough, but the songs turned out to be absolutely hilarious.

“The Dirty South” was the first track we were treated to. Every verse ended the same way “I punched him straight in the mouth, because that’s how we do it in the dirty south.” The punchee ranged from his kindergarten teacher to Tanya Tucker (it was his wife that did the punching in the latter case). As the night wore on they couldn’t stay away from the Floater material. “When the Eagle Screams” has America kicking the butts of Mexico, Canada and Australia (remember the politics part?) and title track “A Hero Never Learns” pretty much sums up p Floater himself. We were still laughing about it in the kitchen after the show when “Watkins” got a request for “Hello Diabetes,” which he honored immediately.

Seldom has a basement show been this laugh out loud funny. With this pair of songwriters we got the best of both worlds, music and humor.