Album Review: Carsie Blanton & The Burning Hell - Everything is Great
It begins with a phone call between singer-songwriter Carsie Blanton and her pal, Mathias Kom, of the Canadian band the Burning Hell, who’s checking in on the American musician and her country. Soon, the title track from their collaborative LP, Everything is Great - it’s sarcasm - turns into a campfire number with Blanton accompanied by guitar, banjo and fiddle.
Everything is great/everything is fine/everything is getting better all of the time/everybody knows that president's insane/but nobody wants to talk about what people do if their president's insane, she sings.
Everything is Great is an adult album - profanity alert - disguised as a children’s LP; a protest record that leaves the listener as happy as angry.
This is where a chorus of puppets gives a real-world lesson - It’s simpler that you might thing because the purpose of a system is what it does - in banking, war and school on “Stafford Beer” and mocks America’s claim to not engage in political violence by listing its politically violent engagements on “Peace & Freedom.” The “Star Spangled Banner”-infused guitar solo is a nice touch.
“Canadian Flag” finds Kom teaching Boy Scouts and Girl Guides how to save themselves when lost in frigid temperatures without burning the banner. It’s not quite the Donner Party, but it is quite gruesome, making its sing-song, happy-go-lucky arrangement all the more delightful.
Flamenco stylings dominate “Private Equity” and “Live Laugh Loot;” “Fascists are Good” is melancholy folk number; and “Host the Guillotine” wraps the dream of offing billionaires in a jaunty polka to ensure listeners Blanton & the Burning Hell are only joking about murder.
Probably.
Grade card: Carsie Blanton & The Burning Hell - Everything is Great - A-
6/23/26
