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James McMurtry "Just Us Kids" (Lightning Rod)
McMurtry's built a sizeable resume since his 1989 John Mellancamp-
produced debut and his 1991 collaboration with Mellencamp, John Prine,
Joe Ely and Dwight Yoakam. The influences of that latter work still
reverberates through his music, with Mellencamp's heartland rock,
Prine's writerly words and Ely's maverick stance all providing input.
Unlike those three, however, McMurtry often sings in a dry, near-
monotone style that crosses the tuneful tunelessness of Dylan or Lou
Reed with the wry asides of Ben Vaughn. His flat delivery seems at
first like it would wear thin at album length, but his songs compel
you forward, his band hits some exceptional grooves, and in the end,
his singing and lyrical voices are closely aligned. McMurtry confronts
current political issues with the sort of disgust that is surprisingly
rare in contemporary music. The heavy blues "God Bless America" casts
an eye on America's warrior-junkie pursuit of fossil fuels and the
corporate soldiers taking point, and "Cheney's Toy" lays out the broad-
scale and intimate impacts of the Iraq war. His measured vocals work
perfectly here, keeping the bitter emotions at a steady, contemptuous
simmer. Isolation pervades both "Hurricane Party" and "Fireline Road,"
the former allegorically tying to a storm's aftermath, the latter
starkly spoken in its story of abuse. John Dee Graham plays a haunting
guitar solo on the latter, Ian McLagan adds a terrific piano solo to
"Freeway View," and Pat MacDonald blows blue harp for the harrowing
homicide of "The Governor." McMurtry's a passionate man who ably
expresses strong opinions with lyrical dexterity. He's effective with
a limited vocal range, making up in tone and dynamics (and characters,
stories and well-crafted phrases) what he lacks in notes. [(c)2008
redtunictroll at hotmail dot com] |
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