Album Of The Week: Willi Carlisle The Universal Bubba

“It’s a record that should sound like getting drunk at the civil war re-enactment, cruising for tail at the cattle auction, dropping acid at the square dance.” That’s Willi Carlisle, in song-by-song notes accompanying his new The Universal Bubba, explaining his intentions for the project. Out this Friday, it’s the most ambitious work yet from the Arkansas country-rocker and “big tent folksinger” — a double album co-produced by Americana superstar Tyler Childers, meant to celebrate and subvert Southern culture in all its glory. It works like it’s supposed to.