Whether you think The Gourds non-sequitur loving n'ere-do-wells or post-modern lyrical geniuses, their mandala-like musical vignettes and gulps of down-home authenticity can not be denied. Musical lifers and road dogs to the end, Kevin 'Shinyribs' Russell, Jimmy Smith, Max Johnston, Keith Langford and Claude Bernard remain at once roots music's envelope pushers and its torch bearers, its purveyors of Joyce-ian density and nickel novel groove - its Jekyll and its Hyde.