The Kentucky Headhunters is an American country rock and Southern rock band. They were founded in 1968 as Itchy Brother, which consisted of brothers Richard Young (rhythm guitar, vocals) and Fred Young (drums) along with Greg Martin (lead guitar, vocals) and Anthony Kenney (bass guitar, vocals). Itchy Brother performed together until 1982, with James Harrison replacing Martin from 1973 to 1976. The Young brothers and Martin began performing as The Kentucky Headhunters in 1986, adding brothers Ricky Lee Phelps (lead vocals, harmonica) and Doug Phelps (bass guitar, backing vocals) to the membership.

In 1991, the band released their second album, Electric Barnyard. Although the album earned a gold certification from the RIAA and a second CMA award for Vocal Group of the Year, its singles received little airplay compared to the band's previous releases, with none of the four singles reaching the top 40 on the U.S. country charts. The album's first single was a cover of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," which was released on the 155th anniversary of Davy Crockett's death; the single shipped to radio with promotional coonskin caps. It spent eleven weeks on the charts and peaked at 49. "With Body and Soul" was the next single released, peaking at number 30 on the Canadian RPM country charts but reaching number 56 in the United States. The third and fourth singles were the original composition "It's Chitlin' Time" and a rendition of Waylon Jennings's "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," at numbers 63 and 60 respectively. Norman Greenbaum's 1969 single "Spirit in the Sky" was covered on this album as well. This album was met with mixed reception from critics. Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly gave it an A rating, saying that it "skillfully blends raw wit, the working-class energy of sweat-stained factory workers jamming between shifts, and musical styles as diverse as the corny Tennessee Ernie Ford and the creamy Eric Clapton." Allmusic critic Brian Mansfield, who gave it three-and-a-half stars, called the band a "top-notch Southern rock band with a sense of humor," and said that the covers on Electric Barnyard were highlights, while the originals were "adequate, offbeat filler." Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times called the band "ZZ Top lite" and said that most of the songs on the album had a "party-hearty sound." Later in 1991, The Kentucky Headhunters performed with Roy Rogers on the song "That's How the West Was Swung" from his Tribute album, and covered Canned Heat's "Let's Work Together" for the soundtrack to the film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. In addition, Martin played lead guitar for Canadian synthpop band Men Without Hats on its 1991 album Sideways and filled in for Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King on that band's 1992 tour, as King was injured at the time. Ricky Lee and Doug departed in June 1992 due to creative differences. According to Richard, Ricky Lee's tenure as lead vocalist was "a bad time" for the band given his opposition to Richard's opinions, although Richard was still surprised to hear of the brothers' departure, and said, "I tried everything I could to get them to stay." Ricky Lee, meanwhile, said that he "was a country singer more than anything" and wanted to eliminate most of the band's hard rock sounds. He and Doug then founded Brother Phelps, which had a more mainstream country sound than The Kentucky Headhunters did. Brother Phelps released two albums for Asylum Records and charted in the country top 40 with "Let Go" and "Were You Really Livin' ," which peaked at number 6 and 28 respectively. CANNOTANSWER

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