Activist, author Kinky Friedman coming to city

NEW HAVEN — Let’s just say that Kinky Friedman, America’s favorite “Texas Jewboy,” is never really wanting for things going on his life.

He’s got his music — the man writes really funny and often touching songs.

He’s an author who has written 30-some-odd books. He has been an animal rescue activist who for 20 years (until this past February) had his own rescue ranch in the Lone Star

State.

He’s a hemp and marijuana legalization activist (although he says he doesn’t smoke the stuff himself — except when he’s on

Willie Nelson’s bus).

And Friedman — poster child for political incorrectness — is an entrepreneur who has his own brand of cigars and for a few years had his own brand of tequila. So it should really be no surprise that when he arrives for his “The Sunday Buzz” matinee show presented by Cygnus Radio at Cafe Nine today, he’ll be toting an all-new album, “Circus of Life.”

It’s his first all-new CD of original tunes in four decades

— just out on July 3 on his own Echo Hill Records.

Showtime is 4 p.m. Brian Molnar — also Friedman’s producer — opens the show. Tickets are $25, available in advance at cafenine.com. Cafe Nine is at 250 State St.

In addition to all the creative stuff he does himself, Friedman is the subject of a rather comprehensive — 450-page (!) — biography by Connecticut author Mary Lou Sullivan, who previously wrote the definitive biography of Johnny Winter, entitled “Raisin’ Cain — The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter.”

It’s titled “Everything’s Bigger in Texas — The Life and Times of Kinky Friedman.” When he takes the stage at Cafe Nine, he’ll also have decades of Kinky music to choose from, including such chestnuts as “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” “Ride ’Em Jewboy,” “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed” and “Waitret, Please Waitret.”

Kinky made his name up north in the ’70s and ’80s as the brash, often hilarious leader of Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, frequent guests at New York City’s Lone Star Cafe.

Those having too much fun to leave Cafe Nine just because the sun is going down are welcome to stay for Cafe Nine’s Original Sunday Blues Jam featuring the George Lesiw Band (with yours truly on harmonica and vocals.) It begins at 8:30 p.m. Admission is free. Signups begin at 8 p.m.

Some other fun shows coming this week include:

⏩ Old Crow Medicine Show with The Ghost of Paul Revere at College Street Music Hall at 8 p.m. Tuesday (tickets $35-$40 at collegestreetmusichall.com).

⏩ JD McPherson with Elison Jackson at 8 p.m. Friday at the Space Ballroom (tickets $20 at spaceballroom.com).

⏩ Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads with Jen Durkin and The Business at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Space Ballroom (tickets $20 in advance at spaceballroom.com or $25 at the door.)

Kinky Friedman