Produced by his good friend
Toby Keith,
El Niño Loco is the first all-song album from
Rodney Carrington, with none of the live standup found on his earlier releases. Best of the bunch is one co-written with
Keith, "White Shirts & Rain," where
Carrington obsesses on breasts like a schoolboy and then begs women, "Could you run through my lawn?/I got my sprinkler on/Because today looks like no rain." Highlight "If I'm the Only One" suspects the wife is cheating ("If I'm the only one you've ever loved/How come you got so many Mardi Gras beads"), while the very funny "Do You All" looks back at
Carrington's high-school days as a time of missed opportunities ("There were other girls and I had the chance/But I got down in the wrong one's pants/And I'm married now"). The Mexicali-flavored title track and the country-rockin' "Drink More Beer" are both on permanent vacation and are perfectly suited for
Kenny Chesney or
Jimmy Buffett fans. Actually, any flipflop-wearing weekend warrior with a crude sense of humor will enjoy the majority of the album, but might want to bail before the closing "Funny Man" spoils the party with its sappy and tedious tears-of-a-clown story. ~ David Jeffries