Eastbound & Down Soundtrack

Collecting the music from the first two seasons of HBO's brilliant series Eastbound & Down, this two-disc soundtrack beautifully sets the stage for the continuous fall and rise of Danny McBride's fictional baseball bad boy, Kenny Powers. With a mix of dialogue snippets and classic tunes, the album captures all the pathos, grime, and in-your-face hilarity of the series with an eclectic mix of songs ranging from Too Short to Kenny Rogers. While the bits of dialogue are lifted directly from the show, what's surprising is that the music is just as evocative, highlighting the care that went into selecting each song for the show. Much like the show itself, the album exists in a reality where Kenny Powers is a real living, breathing person, featuring a booklet not only filled with pics of Powers but with liner notes by perpetual hanger-on Stevie Janowski that proclaim, "What you're holding in your hands is more than an album. It's a musical journey into the spirit and soul of an American Legend." Though this kind of verisimilitude makes the album something fans of the show won't want to pass up, songs like Freddie King's "Going Down," Los Monstruos' "El Monstros, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut," and R.L. Burnside's "Goin' Down South" make a pretty strong case for this collection to make it onto most any music lover's record player. ~ Gregory Heaney