''The Mekons Honky Tonkin is an album by the British band the Mekons, released in 1987. It was their first album to be released in the United States and the band's third country music-influenced album. The band supported the album with a North American tour.

Production

The liner notes include book recommendations for most of the songs. "If They Hang You" commends Dashiell Hammett for his conduct in front of a

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

hearing. " The Trimdon Grange Explosion" is about a 19th century colliery explosion; "Hole in the Ground" is also about the mining life. "Sympathy for the Mekons" adapts themes from " Sympathy for the Devil".

Critical reception

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

called the Mekons "just a catchy, rocking Brit country band with more enthusiasm than skill in the vocal department and lyrics." '' Trouser Press'' wrote that "the genially appealing music, a well-organized wash of fiddles, accordion, guitars and simple drums, makes few demands but keeps the folky standards high." The '' Los Angeles Times'' stated that "the closest reference point for U.S. listeners might be the Pogues, though the Mekons' anarchic approach tolerates a fair degree of amateurism." '' The New York Times'' noted that, "for all their informality, the songs gleam with intelligence," and concluded that "the Mekons bring the fatalism of country and Celtic music into the fractured 1980's." '' The Washington Post'' determined that "the musical results are smoother than on the band's previous country forays, but the lyrics remain smart, funny and wary." AllMusic deemed the album "just short of a masterpiece," writing that the version of "The Trimdon Grange Explosion" "was a remarkable meeting of folk-rock's earnestness and punk's spitting wrath which ranks with the group's most powerful recorded moments." The ''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' listed it as the 19th best album of 1987.

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mekons Honky Tonkin' The Mekons albums 1987 albums Twin/Tone Records albums