
Remember those dramatic records from when you were a kid? With the spoken word parts? Like "Big Bad John" by Jimmy Dean and "Ringo" by Lorne Greene? Oh, crap, I keep forgetting I'm the oldest guy in the room. Remember records? Kinda round and you'd.... Ah, forget it.
Beard & Glasses took that most tired of tired novelty records, "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer", and breathed new life into it. Every DJ in America hates that Elmo & Patsy song because goof ball kids would call constantly to request it. Not just in December, either. We'd get calls for it in June. July. August. Basically all year. Requesting that song was like the putting a tack on teacher's chair of disc jockey harassment.
Hopefully, you're already far enough into the song that you aren't even paying attention to me anymore. So...blah, blah, blah. Buh-blah blah. Moo.
Beard & Glasses are a Folk duo from Vermont, I'm told. Matt Scott and Sam Clement. It snows a lot up there. Not much to do expect dream up wicked concepts for otherwise unlistenable novelty records (and I'd rather they do that than torture the local DJs). This is spaghetti western meets mariachi band meets Carlos Santana meets the Kingston Trio. And that's a helluva thing.
I've made a point of saying that I don't much care for novelty records. But this Beard & Glasses takeoff on "Grandma" is one of the exceptions that prove the rule. Mixtape worthy? Hell, yeah. You can get "Grandma" at Bandcamp (not a freebie, but for a buck). Beard & Glasses also have an earlier Christmas EP, "Tinsel Babies", if you want to check that out.