James McMurtry's Childish Things

Tony Peyser's "Blue State Jukebox"

October 20, 2005		ARCHIVES
James McMurtry's Childish Things Tony Peyser's "Blue State Jukebox" Review -- October, 2005 Edition ---> GET YOUR COPY HERE <--- Before we get going, I just want relay a few things about some previous people I've written about. Sam Baker (Blue State Jukebox, April 2005) got a very nice review of his haunting album Mercy in this month's issue of England's influential Mojo Magazine. Eliza Gilkyson (Blue State Jukebox, September 2005) performed songs from Paradise Hotel at Camp Casey during Cindy Sheehan's globally watched August vacation. Another performer who also sang in Crawford is this month's Blue State Jukebox selection: James McMurtry. I first heard of this Ft. Worth native when Tommy, my neighbor when I was living in Hollywood, slipped me a copy of Where'd You Hide The Body. I wasn't even writing about music back in 1995 but Tommy just had a hunch this was something I should hear. McMurtry, who's now knee deep in his forties, is an old soul with a deep, resonant voice and a fondness for things gone by. In "Fuller Brush Man," he recalls being a young child and seeing salesmen at his front door and curious cars in his driveway: "You don't too often see a Sunbeam anymore/And you never see a Fuller Brush man or a dinosaur ..." On the same album is another key to McMurtry's world view. In the gently spirited "Levelland," he recalls sitting outside his house under the stars with his Mom and hearing sounds coming from the local high school: "And I can still hear the marching band/Doing the best they can/To play ‘Smoke On The Water'/And ‘Joy To The World.'" That telling lyric shows McMurtry's willingness to accept the shortcomings (musical and otherwise) in other people and at the same time appreciating the efforts they're all making. On his latest and excellent new album, Childish Things, McMurtry revisits these themes and touches on some new ones. The title track is possessed with a sweet melancholy as McMurtry takes a peek in the rear-view mirror of mid-life. He sings (pines, actually) for a Bible-quoting aunt, fishing poles, copies of Field and Stream and eye-opening trips on Trailways buses. The song feels like you're at garage sale and reading old postcards from somebody else's nostalgia. McMurtry's real savvy is on display in two verses that bookend the song. The first one goes: "She says I'll grow up big/If I eat all my roast/I'll still believe in heaven/But I won't believe in ghosts ..." The other, from the perspective of thirty some-odd years later, gently turns those words on their head: "(I want) to sell all my stock/And live on the coast/I don't believe in heaven/But I still believe in ghosts." On "Memorial Day," McMurtry touches upon a familiar topic: family get-togethers. "Choctow Bingo" -- you may recall I wrote about Ray Wylie Hubbard's sly cover of it -- is an earlier composition along these lines. Both songs are auditory versions of Cherry Coke, but a real one from a drive-in back in the day, not one from a can filled with more chemicals than a seventh grade science project. "Memorial Day" contains a whupping on account of swearing but also less complicated recollections like, "Maybe she'll take us fishin'/Maybe she'll bake us a pie/Remember like she did that one time/Back before grandpa died." Warren Hood's fiddle-playing confers an appropriately country flavor to the proceedings. My wife bought me an obscure Nick Lowe recording, which included a 2002 radio interview. Lowe --- my all-time favorite artist, thanks for asking --- admitted he always wanted to do a few covers on his albums to avoid looking too intense and desperate. McMurtry has a couple here and my favorite is Peter Case's "Old Part Of Town." This rollicking version is also in keeping with the reflective tone of the album. (The track will be on a Case tribute album coming out next year.) McMurtry cranks it up and captures the song's essence, which is essentially wanting to recapture your youth or, at the very least, do a drive-by. If you've been thinking fondly about somewhere you haven't been --- and people you haven't seen --- in a while, this is the ideal song to play should you decide to take a new look at your old stomping grounds. The track on Childish Things that's garnered the most attention is "We Can't Make It Here." (Rep. Bernie Sanders from Vermont is running for Senator there and using this as his official campaign song.) I had seen the lyrics a year ago when the song was available as a free download on McMurtry's web site. In his first unabashed foray into political songwriting, McMurtry has created an x-ray of America by gazing at a small town's textile mill that went belly-up. The overall prognosis doesn't look good. (Early on, he knew that prospects to sell the album might not look good with such an incendiary song on it. With typical deadpan humor and understatement, McMurtry told The Austin Chronicle that maybe there was an upside with some proper marketing. Some people bought and destroyed Dixie Chicks albums to show support for the administration. So, McMurtry wondered if Wal-Mart --- which already sells carpenters' tools --- could package his CD along with hammers and maybe even have special booths where Republicans could smash up the CD right then and there. Now, there's a guy who's thinking outside the box.) The slowly churning, seven-minute song doesn't clobber you on the head like those aforementioned hammers would but instead simmers before morphing into a full-fledged boil. It starts off off-kilter with some irregular drumbeats and staccato guitar strumming that promise dissonant things to come. The power grows as the indignities he describes come to life: "Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign/Sitting there by the left turn line/Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze/One leg missing, both hands free/No one's paying much mind to him/The V.A. budget's stretched so thin/And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war/We can't make it here anymore." And that's just the first verse. This later one will make Conservatives double-check to make sure their car doors are locked and their home alarms systems are on: "Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin/Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in/Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today/No I hate the men sent the jobs away ..." A very famous novelist, who's something of a music geek, has called "We Can't Make It Here" the best protest song since Dylan's "Masters Of War." When that writer turns out to be Stephen King, you get a sense that McMurtry has come up with something truly scary. Nine songs later, there's another long and impressive track: "Holiday." This album closer does involve a little thematic alchemy as McMurtry breaks out his blowtorch and goggles and fuses together a family gathering song along with some political underpinnings. "Holiday" is mostly about relatives trying to survive another get-together that involves the secular holy trinity of driving, whining and overeating. The social commentary rears its head towards the end of the song. I don't want to spoil it for you but it showcases some jaw-dropping observations about fate, strangers and that old (pre-"Lion King") circle of life. Oh, by the way, the sweet and catchy opening track is called "See The Elephant." But when it comes to politics, I'm sure McMurtry's album will have you seeing donkeys. * * * BuzzFlash Note: Shortly after this was posted, we received a note from a BuzzFlash Reader in a band opening up for McCurtry at an upcoming gig in Philadelphia. If you're in the area, here's the scoop: the gig is October 29th at the North Star Bar in Philadelphia (birthplace of the Constitution and a city that went pretty much 100% for Kerry). Our band is Paul Edelman and the Jangling Sparrows. here are links: http://www.northstarbar.com http://www.janglingsparrows.com http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com We're all really excited about the show. Seems James hates Bush as much as we do... ---> GET YOUR COPY HERE <--- * * * Tony Peyser writes political poems every day for BuzzFlash and draws editorial cartoons twice weekly. His new music column, The Blue State Jukebox, is now a monthly feature for BuzzFlash. Mr. Peyser (who loves referring to himself in the third person) is shamelessly using BuzzFlash as a springboard to help him land his dream job: becoming the new Washington Bureau Chief for Talon News.