\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \n\tThe Universal Bubba<\/em> was the first time that the equally complex and probing Childers has produced a record other than his own, and it\u2019s a delightfully perfect fit: the two artists met while Carlisle was on tour supporting Childers in Australia, and they quickly found a musical and spiritual kinship. Carlisle is a skilled picker, but he he\u2019s not married to tradition \u2014 nor does it feel like he\u2019s trying to intentionally escape from it either. Banjo and fiddle (on one song, \u201cBigger\u2019n Dallas,\u201d via Amanda Shires) are the record\u2019s heart, but never its casing. It grooves, swings, it dances to the accordion on \u201cOld Milwaukee Onestep.\u201d And it all ends at the Chinese food buffet.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wish you luck and health in business, in passion and divorce\/I wish you imitation crab, wish you moo-shoo-pork,\u201d Carlisle sings on his end-of-life prayer \u201cGolden Dragon Buffet,\u201d where his last request is to be sliced up and tossed in a pile of fried rice. It\u2019s both absurd and heartbreaking, but maybe he has a point: How many of us spend more hours hunched over a greasy meal than we do with our fingers in the dirt? Life is dead serious, life is a total joke. Somewhere in between is what makes us human, and that\u2019s where The Universal Bubba<\/em> lingers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n