Published on Jul 16, 2003
James McMurtry didn’t need help with his talent, or with his
heritage. His hard-edged musical character sketches come as a
direct legacy of his father, novelist Larry McMurtry. However, like
most musicians, he needed a break; he got it when his father wrote
a script for a movie starring and directed by John Mellencamp,
Falling From Grace. John met James, John heard James play,
and the rest is history. The direct result was his 1989 debut CD,
Too Long In The Wasteland.
McMurtry is, plain and simple, brilliant on this CD. Unlike most
debut CDs, right out of the gate he tells you what he wants to say,
with no bull and no subterfuge. McMurtry can say more in five words
than most artists can say in an album, a talent he shares with only
a few other artists (Harry Chapin, Bruce Springsteen, and
Mellencamp himself come to mind).
The musicianship on
Too Long is excellent; not surprising, since most of the
artists (including drummer Kenny Aronoff and guitarists David
Grissom and Larry Crane) had played together as Mellencamp’s
backing band. But this isn’t a CD full of ringers; the accent is on
McMurtry’s laconic, dry, and expressive vocals and chiming acoustic
guitar. The production and engineering is superior, keeping it
recording clean and uncluttered.
Then, then there are the songs. McMurtry writes songs like some
people throw daggers; each one is razor sharp, forceful, and nails
its target cleanly. From the opening lines of “Painting By Numbers”
(“‘Cause you’re painting by numbers // connecting the dots // they
don’t have to tell you // you don’t call the shots // you jump when
they say jump // and you don’t ask how high // cause painting by
numbers, they know you’ll get by…”) McMurtry paints
unflinching portraits of moments caught in time, people caught in
circumstance, and shattered dreams.
Highlights include the damning indictment of “Terry”; the lost
moment caught in ice of “Outskirts”; the rollicking “I’m Not From
Here”; the bitter and poignant “Poor Lost Soul”; and, perhaps best
of all, the gentle, wistful, and sad love song “Angeline”.
James McMurtry is one of the greatest artists in American music
today, and
Too Long In The Wasteland was a brilliant debut. Check it
out.