The Cleverlys

The Cleverlys are a stage act before they are a band, an invented Ozark family with invented names and an invented backstory, all delivered straight-faced between numbers. The joke is in the arrangements: hip-hop and arena-pop songs picked note for note on banjo, mandolin and guitar, sung with total sincerity by players who can actually handle the material. The patter between songs takes up as much room as the music. Paul Harris, who plays banjo and does most of the talking as the family patriarch, built the act around Branson and Arkansas comedy circuits before it spread through video clips of the covers.