Album Review: Blag Dahlia - "Introducing Ralph Champagne"
Veteran lead singer with the Dwarves, Blag Dahlia's decision to create a new country singer alter ego isn't exactly uncharted territory - from the Beastie Boys' Country Mike to Ginger Wildheart's infamous Howlin' Willie C**t, rock and punk history seems to be littered with people who've gone down the cornball (and usually gleefully offensive) country route for a laugh-a-minute side project. I think the main surprise with Introducing... , especially given the Dwarves' penchant for blood, gore and thrash, is that it's a surprisingly straightforward effort. Oh sure, there's still an enjoyable lack of sensibility in some of the songs - Your Girlfriend and She's All Mine are gleefully foul-mouthed efforts that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the aforementioned Howlin' Willie album while Lolita Goodbye is about turning down a jailbait girl to start dating her mum instead and Horribly Wrong manages to rhyme "Cheech without Cho...