It’s hard to be winning with an album full of just a banjolele (an instrument that’s part banjo, part ukulele), unless you play the banjolele like a badass and play the kazoo like it’s a saxophone, like Johnny Foodstamp does on his full-length Motel Heaven. Sold.

Johnny Foodstamp has built up an aesthetic with his name, playing style and songwriting. It’s difficult to say whether the persona you perceive through the record is really him, or if that’s just what he wants you to think. But hey, picture what you think Johnny Foodstamp looks like, and that’s what he looks like.

From the opening track, “Broke A$$ in the Ghetto,” I was struck by the crude elasticity of his vocals. His voice stretches and cracks, sounding like a folk-trash version of James Brown, down to the primal scream he lets out in “I Only Say I Love You” (“when I’m naked,” as the lyrics go).

All the while, Foodstamp’s banjolele thrums and grates (perfectly punctuated with a few simple bass lines on some tracks, like “Pay Da Rent”) like another band member or the dancing pet of some street performer; he even personifies it in “Little Ukulele.” Moreover, Foodstamp knows how to bring out the versatility of his instruments. Between the banjolele and the kazoo, he sounds like a rustic, one-man Salvation Army band. Motel Heaven is folk soul at its absolute barest.