Bob Frank & John Murry with The Lansky Brothers

In 2006 Bob Frank and John Murry released a critically-acclaimed collection of gruesome rape, murder, and lynching ballads called “World Without End.” So as not to get pegged into a gothic-murder-ballad genre, these singer-songwriters embarked upon the flipside of the death coin –love. The result, “Brinkley, Ark. and Other Assorted Love Songs,” however, didn’t pan out as planned. John Murry sings like he's making a desperate phone call from the Emergency Room. His songs are like stumbling upon a fatal car crash and recognizing the people in the wreckage. Bob Frank’s crooked love ballads border on obsession if not flat out delusion. If the homeless Vietnam vets living on our streets could burst into song about longing this is what they'd sing. The early rock and roll 1950's backbeat only adds to their creepiness, as if Buddy Holly didn’t die but rather got drafted, sent to Vietnam, and returned with post traumatic stress disorder. Although both these men tried to escape their demons by writing about love, even darker demons than those of the murderers they channeled for their last album arise in the midst of these “love" songs. Truly: listening to “Brinkley, Ark. and Other Assorted Love Songs” is like visiting day at the mental ward if the patients had guitars and could breakout into song, replete with greasy Stax-era horns and Southern . You don’t want these guys singing at your wedding. The songs play like the heartfelt testimony of cold-blooded killers pleading for mercy at a murder trial before sentencing. This record would provide a decent sound-track to any David Lynch movie; turn the sound down on "Wild at Heart" or "Lost Highway" and play this record; you'll be amazed at how much the lips of the actors synch up with the songs.