Kinky Friedman/ Associated Press

Quirky Texas singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman has three Minnesota connections, he explained Saturday night at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis.

His late mother, Minnie, was born in Minneapolis and lived here until moving to Chicago in her teens. Dean Barkley, who managed Friedman's campaign for Texas governor in 2006, and ad man Bill Hillsman, another Friedman campaign guru, both live here and attended Saturday's performance. (Jesse Ventura, who apparently talked Kinky into running for Guv, was a no-show.)

Friedman, 67, comes across as the smart-aleck son of George Burns and Woody Guthrie if they could have somehow had a baby together. Kinky is part cigar-chomping vaudevillian (with a Texas sense of humor) and part plain-voiced talkin' blues/folk troubadour/story teller (with a Texas flavor). The humor (in both song and patter) combined with some remarkable straightforward songs made for a provocative, laugh-filled and entertaining evening.

Some of the song titles by themselves give you a flavor of Friedman's humor: "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore," "We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service To You" and "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed."

But he also did several serious tunes — including the romantic "Marilyn and Joe," the yearning "Lady Yesterday" and the exceptional story-song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" — that fit into the Texas singer-songwriter canon made famous by Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and others. Even though this is billed as Friedman's 2011 Hanukkah Tour, he didn't really do any holiday-themed tunes.

An author of 11 books, he also read a chapter from his book "Heroes of a Texas Childhood" about the 23 heroes who shaped his life. He chose to read about his dad, a World War II airplane navigator who later ran a camp for kids in Texas. Between the life lessons, Friedman talked a lot about politics — Texas and otherwise — and life philosophies. Just about every serious observation was delivered with the humorous twist of old-school vaudevillian — except he didn't have a drummer for rim shots because he was working solo with acoustic guitar.

The ever-talented and entrepeneurial Friedman plugged his forthcoming brand of tequila and books he's writing with Willie Nelson and with Billy Bob Thornton. Then, after the 85-minute performance, Kinky invited fans onstage, saying "I'll sign anything but bad legislation."