Live at Dollywood (MCA, 1997)

No question about it, Jerry Clower is cornier than a big ol' mess of hominy grits. But that's not a problem because what he also is, is funny - albeit not consistently. He can evoke belly laughs as he does here with the tale of Miss Flossie Ledbetter, a 60-something spinster who decides to have a baby from the sperm bank without having to "fool with no menfolks," or the tale of Odell Ledbetter, one of the slower members of that clan, who is proud that it only took him two weeks to put together a jigsaw puzzle in only two weeks especially as "it's wrote on the box: 4 to 7 years." Or he can tell one so unfunny all the primed crowd at Dollywood can do is laugh politely. Perhaps Clower's most interesting talent is the way he can personalize an old joke like the seeing-eye chihuahua wheeze and make you laugh at it all over again.