Songwriters find Palin irresistible

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One warm September night in Fairbanks, Alaska, snowmachine dealer and parody songwriter Craig Compeau sat in his Dodge pickup listening to a country station when Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" came on.Inspiration struck. The next morning, it took an hour and a pot of coffee for Compeau -- whose past tunes include "Permafrost for Brains" and "Backing up the Lead Dog Blues" -- to compose his Sarah Palin tribute.Sample lyric from "Pitbull Woman:"A real maverick, she'll shake it up a bit She's a gal that the Dems just hateYou'll find posters on her wall of Nugent and McCainObama talks down to her, she don't give a rip She's clinging to her .44 with a baby on her hip.It's not just Compeau or "Saturday Night Live." Since Sen. John McCain announced the Alaska governor as his running mate on Aug. 29, amateur songwriters near and far have found their muse in Palin.In the past two months, they've cranked out enough Palin parodies to fill an iPod.There are Palin gangsta raps and Palin ballads. Saucy Palin love songs and scathing anti-Palin screeds.Even Hank Williams Jr. has joined the hit parade by performing a McCain-Palin version of his "Family Tradition" at campaign rallies.Chicago musician and part-time dog walker Ellie Maybe had never heard of the Alaska governor until her star turn at the Republican National Convention. "Sarah Palin is rather captivating, if a little terrifying," Maybe said Monday. "I just can't stop watching her when she's on television."The 24-year-old wrote a song called "Me & Sarah Palin" and put it on her MySpace page. Sample lyric: "How much does it cost to rent a U-Haul to Alaska? Cuz she stole my heart and every day I'm falling faster.""One day, we'll have a big house, with lots of moose to shoot," Maybe sings.Moose shooting, lipstick and beauty pageants are common themes in many of the tunes. Other touchstones, particularly from Palin critics: Weed, hotness and dinosaurs. "It just seems like (McCain) nominated her like five years ago, with all the material that's been out there," said conservative Anchorage radio host Rick Rydell, who has played Compeau's tune on his show.And the rap songs.Oh, the Palin rap songs. The number alone of amateur videos of women wearing librarian glasses and updos while rhyming to the camera boggles the mind. "Joe sixpack is my homie, he loves it when I wink. Each time he hears 'Go Maverick,' yeah, he knows it's time to drink," says a woman in one YouTube clip as a man off camera beatboxes.The woman, who is sitting in front of a closet, puts her hand in the air like she's scratching an imaginary record. "Wikka, wikka," she says. By the time Amy Poehler rapped about Palin on "Saturday Night Live," a former runner-up on VH1's "Ego Trip's (White) Rapper Show" had a naughty song on his Web site that referenced the governor's plans to build a natural gas pipeline, "Sarah Palin (I Wanna Lay Pipe)" for weeks. Another Fairbanks musician, news anchor Bob Miller pitched in with his own country tune last month called "I'm a Sarah-ist." "I was going to sing this tune to a bridge over troubled water, but Sarah said she already vetoed that one," Miller says at the beginning of the tune.For parody songwriters, Palin is a gift from the comedy gods said Mr. Whitekeys, an Anchorage entertainer who performs weekly political humor during a local Anchorage newscast."She's got everything you're looking for," he said. "I mean she's the governor, she got appointed out of the blue to be the vice presidential running mate for John McCain."She hunts moose, she's from Alaska, she's a beauty queen."On Sunday, Whitekeys posted his own Palin parody on YouTube. In the video, a Palin look-a-like lip syncs in front of a group of camo-clad dancers. The dancers are carrying what look like foam machine guns. It's sung to the tune of a 1980s Cyndi Lauper's classic."Oh, Smith & Wesson, you're still number one," the faux Palin sings, "And girls, just wanna have guns ..."E-mail Kyle Hopkins at khopkins(at)adn.com(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)