I Love Jesus But I Drink A Little

Few people truly know who Gladys Hardy is, but if you haven’t heard of her, she’s the 88-year-old Austin, TX, resident who likes to call talk shows and “tell it like it is.” When she left a message complaining about how a potted plant placed behind Ellen DeGeneres’ head made the television host “look like Alfalfa,” she got a call back from Ellen on the air, and the rest is history. With a delivery that’s Yogi Berra meets Jonathan Winters’ Maude Fricket character, Hardy had enough appeal to draw tens of thousands of people to YouTube for a quick laugh. I Love Jesus But I Drink a Little hopes they can stick around for a whole album. If you think Gladys is real, maybe it’ll work, but if you notice that Hardy’s sayings are old, but not so old that they’re new, or notice that her voice often sounds like a man playing the role of an elderly woman, you’ll probably grow tired of this schtick pretty quick. Her calls to morning radio jocks included here sound rehearsed and the “you are there” recording of a family dinner (called “Grace”) finds Gladys steering the conversation toward things that always lead to a punchline. If this was your “Nana,” as she’s often called, you’d go crazy from all the talk about gas, new-fangled technology, and kids today, along with the “you can call me anytime, just don’t call me late for dinner” groaners. The good news is that the impromptu moments when folks like Ellen believe in Gladys work well, and every crank call included here is worth a laugh or two. “Opinions are like a-holes, everybody’s got one” is far and away the dirtiest moment, meaning this is one of the rare comedy albums for the whole family. In addition, this Hardy character refreshingly shows no ill will to anyone, even those kids with low-riding “poop drawer pants.” – David Jeffries