I'm a Natural Born Gambling Man

AMG Review of I'm a Natural Born Gambling Man

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Leroy Pullins designed himself as a Roger Miller disciple -- something that's evident from the moment the giddy gallop of "I'm a Nut" kicks off, but the rest of I'm a Natural Born Gambling Man, Bear Family's collection of Pullins' extant recordings, has two shocks: one, Leroy never departed from that template and, two, he wound up being freakier than Miller, piling up fuzztones and other '60s accoutrements that date his records and make them stranger than Miller's. They're novelty in the purest sense: anything and everything is thrown into the mix with the hope that it'll give them some radio play. Outside of "I'm a Nut," it didn't quite work, as he never had another single scrape the charts, but as '60s country curiosities go, Pullins is among the most fascinating due to his sheer oddity. "I'm a Nut" sounds the strangest, but the I'm a Nut LP had some tunes to rival it, such as the forced frivolity of "The Taterville Women's Auxiliary Sewing Circle" and "The Interstate Is Coming Through My Outhouse," the frog impressions on the chorus of "Knee Deep" and, most disturbingly, the litany of suicide options on "I'm Killing Myself." Pullins is a versatile vocalist so he can pull off these strange songs -- just like how he can pull off the mawkishness of "I Love You Drops," a wholly successful attempt at mimicking Miller's sentimental side -- and he also was a solid songwriter, perhaps best heard on the childhood tale "Billy Roy and Jackson Sam" but also "I'm a Nut," which really is as good as a country joke can get. Still, the overall impression that the album leaves is one of unabashed strangeness, one that is stronger now that its release is many years in the past. Pullins' second album Funny Bones & Hearts pretty much offers more of the same, pushing harder in both the sentimental and novelty directions -- something that is implicit in the title of the album -- and while it doesn't get quite either as purposely or inadvertently strange as I'm a Nut, it does have its moments, most notably the forcefully goofy "Swimming at the Bottom of the Pool" and the far east fantasia of "Oriental Girl," which ties neatly into the Vietnam war. But the best moments on this second album are Pullins' versions of Billy Edd Wheeler's "The Worst Was Wonderful" and Kris Kristofferson's "Gypsy Rose and I Don't Give a Curse" which suggests that if he had toned down the Roger Miller stylings a bit, he might have had some success as mid-level country pop singer. However, he didn't have a hit with this album, and so he disappeared, leaving behind a truly odd body of work that's worthwhile to '60s country fans with a taste for strange, a body of work that's presented in its entirety on this Bear Family set.