Song Titles from "Hillbilly Private Eye"

To listen to clips from this hilarous CD, simply click on the underlined song titles below.

1. If Our Young'uns Turn Out Ugly
(I'm gonna blame it all on you)

2. I Hope That You Don't Catch
(What I Caught from Her)

3. Cornbread Holler

4. Ventriloquist Blues

5. Billy Bob Longarini

6. Hillbilly Private Eye

7. Jack Daniel's Breathmints

8. The Spiderman Suit Song

9. Wait for Me in Nashville

10. Marsha the Martial Arts Queen

"Hillbilly Private Eye" Audio Streams

REVIEW

Merlin Gene & "Arjay" - Hillbilly Private Eye
Mastered by Mike Harrison, Harrison House, Mt. Juliet, TN
Recorded and Produced by Arvel Ellis Bird at Brush Hill Studios, Nashville, TN
Released by Dum-Boy Records

The very idea of recording a ventriloquist act onto a disc is a bit bizarre. More than any other type of entertainment, ventriloquism demands a live-and-in-person performance, where the audience can see the manipulation of the wooden dummy and experience the voice-throwing skill of its operator. Therefore, warming up to 'Hillbilly Private Eye' takes a while. The record hits its stride with "Ventriloquist Blues," a comic workout in which the two partners jokingly complain of each other's faults.
The production values are truly first-rate. Recorded at Nashville's Brush Hill Studios, it's filled with excellent little touches such as the moonshine-soaked spoof of '60s secret agent guitar licks in the title track, "Hillbilly Private Eye," a song about a hero you should call, "If some melons been swiped from your mushmelon patch/And whoever swiped 'em, you can't seem to catch." Some of the songs without Arjay (such as "Wait For Me in Nashville") hint that Grigsby is actually a better-than-average songsmith who's merely using ventriloquism as a gimmick to get his material noticed. If that's true, he's certainly no dummy.
-Gregory Nicoll, Editor
Southeast Performer Magazine