The album was titled after one of his songs, Palookaville. The first incarnation of Palookaville was a metaphorical treatment of life on earth as a quick but tiresome whistle stop -- a Palookaville, if you will -- with the afterlife being the only true destination. Keith's wife said the song sucked, so he kept the title and made up a new song about a fat broad who kicks his skinny ass for asking her if she's pregnant. There's a little more to the song, but not much.

You could say that Palookaville strikes the familiar chord of man's tendency to put foot in mouth, to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, to make the immediately regrettable decision -- in other words, to be a palooka.

But it's really just about a fat broad who kicks Keith's skinny ass.

His childrens' favorite song on the cassette is I Want To Grow Old. Here he makes a real stretch where the "narrator" is a crotchety middle aged lizard eagerly anticipating the pleasure of becoming more of one -- flaunting minor laws and generally getting away with rude behavior.  

Likened (by Keith) to the humorously thoughtful compositions of the late Steve Goodman, this song allows the listener to justify an increasingly cranky disposition as the years add up.  The song has been hailed (not by Keith) as  "life-changing." One reviewer called it "a delightfully wicked take" with "a nifty smart-ass tone."

No fat broads kicking Keith's ass in this baby.

Some prefer Kirby, his first "keeper" written over twenty years ago. This one's about an old fiddle player and former landlord down in Chauncey, a tiny place just outside of Athens, Ohio. Kirby played fine old-time fiddle, but Keith didn't know him well enough to be hep to any of his great accomplishments or personal tragedies. So Keith killed off his wife midway through the song and sent him packing in the last verse.

Here's the standard pitch.

Palookaville, Kirby,  I Want to Grow Old and the eight other selections (Camelia, Venus, Moonlight Over Kansas, Evangeline, She's A Little Bit, Down The Road, Those Three Shepherds, and Let's Say Good Night) tell of people perhaps not always at their best, but optimistic that their efforts are somehow, and sometimes inexplicably, rewarded.  They speak to the palooka in all of us. 

They speak to the palooka in all of us, all right. Keith just wanted to impress his kids and wife. He recorded the songs at home on a 4-track Tascam recorder and a borrowed condenser mike, then had the digital master made in a basement studio where the hall is lined with mementos and testimonials from the seventies.

The cassette didn't cost a whole lot to make, and, for the piledriving incentive that nails this deal, it won't cost you much to listen to.

To order by mail, send $8 (includes shipping) to K. Reichley, 23969 Frank Street, North Olmsted, OH 44070.  Do not come to his house. The cassette can also be purchased at Borders Books & Music in Westlake, Record Revolution on Coventry Road, and Blue Eagle Music in Athens, Ohio.

Kirby was included on Folknet's 1996 CD called Acoustic Harvest: More Pickings.

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