James Mc Murtry: Our Next Poet Laureate? " Just Us Kids"

Sooooo... Mc Murtry is just the best. Very simple, very straightforward. Just the best. While the Old 97’s never change and I love them, Mc Murtry simply writes the best, most cogent songs at any given time, in the whole country. Steve Earle might come close but even he is erratic and only good when passionately outraged. Mc Murtry on the other hand writes two to three classics on every CD. Some rock, some lilt and all of them stab you in the heart. His catalogue of music is something to be owned and cherished and this is not exception.

Ronnie Johnson and Darren Hess on bass and drums are rock solid as always. These guys have had excellent careers with other bands. Huss was with the Silos and Green on Red as well as Poi Dog Pondering and Dave Alvin. Ronnie Johnson spent time playing with the Ronnie Lane Group, The Shakin Apostles and Ron Wiley Hubbard. These guys can play and he has played with them for quite a while. There is a lot to be said for solo acts having the same band for years and years. Elvis Costello comes immediately to mind as well as Graham Parker. people come in and out but there is something about playing together over time and tightens the screws.... is a good way.

He kicks off and I mean kicks it off with “Turtle Bayou”. Though it is no “Choctaw Bingo” it is just another night in poor white trash land. The title cut is a lilting and rollicking romp about success and never growing up. He hits a couple of political songs about our failed administration in “God Bless America (Pat Macdonald Must Die)” and “Cheney’s Toy”. The latter has drawn a lot of conservative ire but he really is just singing about the President. “Freeway View” is a nice song but “Hurricane Party” is a heart breaker and is just a great, great song, story, novel, ode...:

“My one great love, my God, I can feel her still
She ran off to California and now she's living in those Hollywood hills
With some bullfrog prince, I've not seen her since
Though she calls when he's out of town
And there's no one to talk to when the lines go down”.
Indeed!

He follows with the best song of the album (in my humble opinion) “Ruby and Carlos”. What makes Mc Murtry so great are the characters he draws and in this one he draws a star-crossed romance which you would call a spring/winter romance, were not both of them so dead inside. Beautiful, sad stuff. Carlos is a drummer and has left Ruby to live in Nashville after coming back from the war.

“Lately he’s been staying high.
Sick all winter and they don’t know why.
They don’t know why or they just won’t say.
They don’t talk much down at the V.A.”

He follows that with a little instrumental. “Fireline Road” is a bleak story of poverty, addiction and loss. “The Governor” is a troubling song about some guys killed by a rich guys boat in Texas.... unsolved. “Ruins Of The Realm” is just another biting commentary on... us.

“We got the National Guard with the bayonets
We got the ten commandments on the State House steps
We shalt not steal and we shalt not kill
Dancin' in the ruins of our own free will
Dancin' in the ruins of the South
Confederate flag taped over my mouth.’
he closes with “Leonard Cohen Must Die” which is... self explanatory. I always liked the guy myself.
Bottom line. Buy this one. If you do not buy it then download 3 or 4 of these gems. Drink some bourbon, smoke a Camel and smile.

9 Slingers on the 10 scale.

JUST US KIDS debuts on FOUR Billboard Charts!
James McMurtry's new album, JUST US KIDS, debuts in Billboard Magazine on the following charts:
Heatseekers Chart #2
Tastemaker Chart #6
Indie Label Chart #18
Top 200 album sales chart #136

The Old 97's: Blame It On Gravity and at The Pageant

I have had a long time affair with Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s. It has gone through a lot of ups and downs overcoming him dropping out of college, starting a band, getting semi famous, getting a model for a wife, trying and failing at a solo career, getting back together with the band and well, kind of mailing it in. I would estimate that I have seen them play live about 12 to 15 times. More then any other band. I think Los Lobos would be second and Wilco is in there somewhere.

So it is always with some trepidation that I see that they have a new album coming out. Additionally they are of course touring behind it and I need to see them live. Trepidation comes because they are a very unlikely band to break through to new ground. They have a nice rocking, twanging sound. Ken Bethea gets better on guitar but he is not a virtuoso but he is just what the band needed. Miller is good looking, Murray Hammond adds heart and earnestness. Not a bad combo but also not a group you can expect to evolve like say... a Wilco.

And they have not.

Lets make clear. I still love these guys and Rhett is still cute but... there is not much growth. Still, growth is not all it is cracked up to be and certainly not for everyone. The new CD “Blame It On Gravity” came out last month and it is an excellent tuneful yet unremarkable collection. It starts with “The Fool: which rollicks along like ANY Old 97’s song. It tells a story of a guy in love. A fool in love. Who would have thunk it? Dance with me is Rhett Miller, breathy, I am singing about the girl but want the girls to be thinking about me, song. Only a girl could like it and maybe not even them. The third song “No Baby I” is much better and gives you hope. It has the poetry of Millers best work with the tag line “blame it on gravity, blame it on being a girl”. It is soft, lilting and works.

”My Two Feet”... I don’t know. I like it but seems a lot like all their new songs since Satellite Rides. The rhymes, work, the songs cute, Bethea's guitar jangles but, do I really give a shit anymore? “Ride” brings it back with quality again but there is very little rawness and it is still kind of a “look at me” song though Bethea gives us some high points as Rhett takes us on a ride. “She Loves The Sunset” is at best, insipid. “I love a girl, she loves the sunset”. Seriously? it tries to do an island hawaii thing. Lets just call it a mistake. “This Beautiful Thing”, Murray contributes... sort of. Murray is big, funny looking and bespectacled. he is married to singer songwriter Grey De Lisle and... I have never know what to do with Murray and this song does nothing to clear up the riddle.

“I Will Remain” finds Miller heading back to surer footing and is a good listen for someone who loves his voice like I do. I could listen to him chant the phone book but this is just a pleasant little ditty and an ode to eternal, lost, and unrequited love. “Early Morning” tries to become another “Four Leaf Clover”. Perhaps time will make me love it. I am not counting on it. “The Easy Way” might be the best song on the CD. It finds Rhett singing about love, Texas, jukeboxes and things he knows best. No guitar heroics, just Bethea slashing away the way he does best, in perfect time. “Heres To The Halcyon” seems to be about a ship, it tries to be too poetic and does not work. “Color of a Lonely heart Is Blue” is Murray Hammond at his best, which is singing just about the same note. If you didn’t listen to the words you would think he was singing “West Texas Teardrop”. But do not listen to the words. Fittingly they close with the best song “The One”. Miller sings about the band and relationships and bank robbery. My recommendation would be to download three or four of these songs from iTunes and call it what you need. Strictly a CD for a fan and a completist.

So that leaves us with their live show. The bottom line is that if you love them it is great live show. Rhett is still cute, albeit pudgier. He still can sing. Bethea is finally comfortable as a lead guitar player and is no longer embarrassed of his chops. Murray Hammond is talented and air tight on Bass and rhythm if needed and always solid on backing vocals and his songs where he sings are always a nice break from Rhetts too pretty vocals. I know I wrote all this without mentioning their longtime drummer Philip Peeples. He is a non entity on album or stage but like Mike Heidorn from Uncle Tupelo, it is not the band without him and if they lost him they would probably be done. Drummers are funny.

Tim Russert: R.I.P.

Sooooo... I was in a bar a few Fridays ago (odd) on a Friday afternoon (odder) when I started getting emails and voicemail's. “Russert died”. “Heart Attack in his office”. I had consumed a few beers. I answered back that i had nothing to do with him passing away. I do not know what it says about me that my friends knew Russerts death would matter to me. Probably nothing good. Fortunately I was up in Michigan all week and busy but now, after a week and sitting in front of my TV on Sunday morning I have a full understanding of the loss.

I miss this guy. Russert was one of the good guys and by that I do not mean liberal or conservative or anything else in regard to political leanings but in regard to delving quality to the American people. Journalism has been stomped by capitalism over the last twenty years because it is not cost effective to have researchers and reporters out there from 10 different news sources to give us balance. So we have pool reports. We have one source in a foreign country giving news to everyone. We have budget cuts and of course we have “Fair And Balanced” Fox News.

Russert was like a beacon on Sunday mornings. Most Sundays I watched him while reading m paper and in most cases put my paper down and listened to whomever he was interviewing. He was polite and also no nonsense with no bullshit. Inevitably he would put up the interviewees own headlines, quotes and comments to question them about their current pose. It did a lot to educate me as to how the political winds and positions ebb and flow... and blow. He was not bombastic but he could get pissed off and when he did it was genuine and did not have the obnoxious “look at me” quality you see from so many of the talking heads, Fox and non Fox.

Watching the “Meet The Press” memorial to him... the sense of loss was heightened. I did not even know what a devout Catholic he was and that is a good thing. He carried a sense of righteousness about him that did not require that he wear it on his sleeve. Jeez, the guy was a Buffalo Bills fan for God’s sake. Most of the city of Buffalo has grown out of that but Russert had those qualities of doggish loyalty that changes everything. He clerked for Daniel Patrick Moynihan. According to Wikipedia:

“Russert, a devout Catholic, said many times he had made a promise to God to never miss Sunday Mass if his son were born healthy. In his writing and in his news reporting, Russert spoke openly and fondly of his Catholic school education and of the role of the Catholic Church in his life. He was an outspoken supporter of Catholic education on all levels. [27] He said that his father, a sanitation worker who never finished high school, "worked two jobs all his life so his four kids could go to Catholic school, and those schools changed my life." He also spoke warmly of Catholic nuns who taught him. "Sister Mary Lucille founded a school newspaper and appointed me editor and changed my life," he said. Teachers in Catholic schools "taught me to read and write, but also how to tell right from wrong."[27]

That is very good stuff. It just always seemed like he was something that the people he was covering. But he was not smug about it. He had a law degree which automatically makes him suspect but he overcame those formidable odds along with overcoming a Jesuit education to just become a nice, insightful committed guy. He lacked pretense and there was never any sense that he had anything but scorn for the cults of personality established by some of his contemproaries whether in “Hardball” or “The No Spin Zone” he was never bigger then the story, he never was the story. He reported the story. He will be impossible to replace but you hope NBC tries hard. We were lucky to have him. Light a candle, say a prayer. We are poorer without Tim Russert. GO BILLS!

There were a ton of eulogies for him. I think this is the best:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25249357#25249357

erata: June

Soooo... is the diner review dead? No is the sad and annoying answer. May... for a parent, especially a parent of teens May is the month of nightmares for a teens parent and really any parent. Graduations, confirmations, mothers day, birthdays... it just goes on and on and frankly with all the drinking, partying and celebration I have been mentally vacant and not fulfilled my bloggers duties. I apologize to all 5 of you who occasionally stop by. Upcoming we are going to have some new music reviews on CD’s I have received, a little Twangfest which is also fun and a review of this book Blue Highways which has taken me like a month to get through. Ooops. I just did the Blue Highways one...sorry.

****
So lets catch up. Obama is the “presumptive Democratic nominee”. I know I have been waiting for it but the Obama, Hillary race has made it tiresome and anti-climactic. Hillaries capitulation speech was well done and showed again how smart and possibly evil she is. Obama will have a hard time not picking her as VP, with all the baggage that entails. I am still hoping he takes that crazy, ex-army, fiction writing, former Republican, middle class white guy James Webb but at this point Hillary has (finally) positioned herself. She gave a good speech, seriously. And you have to take that seriously from a guy like me, I hate her like poison. I would still promise her the first Supreme Court opening (Ruth Bader Ginsberg is old and Hillary could screw with Scalia and his toadies) and make Bill Ambassador to... I don’t know, Venezuela a Sweden or some other place with hot women that is far away. That is just me. My brother has opined that if he picks her he signs his own death warrant. I don’t know. I hope that is not the case and I think he is going to have a tough time not picking her now. Go Webb, beat Hillary.

****

We had our 25th Anniversary and we had our party. The party was a a combination of Pat’s high school graduation, Jon turning 21 and of course Sandy’s and my 25th anniversary. It was a huge pain in the ass getting ready for. My wife wanted things “just so” and I was just excited to get together with friends. My in-laws, God bless them wanted to have a nice sit down dinner for us and some friends but that did not seem to summarize our 25 years OR take into account all the nice people (or even a part of them) that God had tossed into our lives. That being the case we had a band (Jakes Leg) and a keg of Busch, and a keg of Schlafly India Pale Ale, and 4 cases of Bud Light and some other girly lime beer. We also had about 150 waters. The party was from 5 till whenever and predictably most of the old people and people interested in Pat’s graduation showed up early. We got a lot of family through the house before the band was supposed to start.

For those of you who do not know Jake’s Leg, shame on you. Randy Fuhr used to own a bar called 20 North down on (get this) 20 North Vandeventer backing up to SLU’s campus. 29 years ago it was a right of passage to sneak in with a fake ID and hear his band Jake’s Leg play the Grateful Dead catalogue. Thankfully, they are still doing the same thing even though Father Biondi (should such a capitalist be called “father”) eminent domained them out of business. It was very sad and they play around town now at a lot of different venues on Thursday-Saturday. They should not be missed. Although there are other quality dead cover bands that have developed (See Schwag and Dark Star Orchestra) these guys are still the real deal and three of them have been playing together for 20 years so they play tight and sweet.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and I had set the band up back by the pool where people could either come down close or sit up on our patio and watch from a safe distance. They showed up and set up and were just so pleasant and accommodating. I showed them where the outlets were and they set up and then after setting up... the sky grew unexpectedly dark and everything got tense for me. it started to drizzle, and I found tarps to cover their stuff... we stared at Doppler on the computer (twice) and then made the call and they moved to the garage. We had the back part of the driveway tented so people were able to sit on the driveway and watch. I was very tense, until they moved and started to play and then it became for me at least... a party.

We have an eclectic group of friends and relatives but the band turned it down and played some nice tunes and did whatever requests I called out for (Tore Up, Sugar Magnolia, Mama Tried, Big River and Dixie Chicken) and did a great job. The food was good, the beer flowed and it was a fun time. the rain stopped and people (at least some people) stayed till about 12:30. We cleaned up a little and were in bed by 1:30 but the planning and setting up along with other May events kept me busy and grumpy for most of May.

****

We hit Chez Leone for our actual anniversary on June 4. It was empty, the food was great and we split a fabulous bottle of Margeaux. the price fix there for three course is like 38 bucks and the food and service were excellent. We will go back and I heartily recommend it for a nice night out.

****
Coming up next is going to be what else kept me busy in May. Stay tuned. It will be graphic.

Book Review: Pages In Heat

“Blue Highways”
William Least heat Moon
Back Bay Books
429 Pages






I read this book on the recommendation of a grade school and high school compatriot who I ran into up in Michigan. I was extolling the virtues of diners and she and a Lutheran Minister of my acquaintance began extolling the virtues of this book and his system of choosing the best diners which was to see how many calendars were on the wall. The theory was a simple one that the best diners were frequented by local and the best evidence of locals were their wall calendars for auto parts, insurance, etc... I do not know about the theory but the book is a serious one.

"Least Heat Moon was living in Columbia Missouri when with his life going apparently bad he decided to go on a little vision quest in his pick up Ghost Dancing and travel all around the country. The name of the book and the idea was to not drive on inter-states but only the blue highways on his atlas which were small roads through the “real” America. Wikipedia tells us:
“His pen name came from something that his father once said, "I call myself heat moon, your elder brother is little heat moon. You, coming last, therefore, are least." Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he attended the University of Missouri–Columbia where he joined Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and received a bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D degrees in English as well as a bachelor's degree in photojournalism. He also served as a professor of English at the University.
He is a contemporary Missouri travel writer, and author of a bestselling trilogy of topographical U.S. travel writing.
Blue Highways, which spent 42 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 1982-83, is a chronicle of a three-month-long road trip that Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in 1978, after losing his teaching job and being left by his wife. He travelled 13,000 miles, as much as possible on secondary roads (often drawn on maps in blue, esp. on the old style Rand McNally road atlas) and tried to avoid cities, living out of the back of his van "Ghost Dancing" and visiting small towns such as Nameless, Tennessee; Hachita, New Mexico; and Bagley, Minnesota in an attempt to find places in America that were untouched by fast food chains and interstate highways. The book chronicles the people he talked to in roadside cafés as well as his personal soul-searching.”

It is an interesting book. Written or experienced in 1978 and published in 1982-83, right about the time I was getting out of college and not getting into Law School immediately. It was a best seller but I didn’t have time for it then, and to be fair it was hard to make time for it now. It is an excellent book. It is most interesting in that it is just kind of a slice of life view of our country at that time and in that regard it was fascinating. He visited a lot of towns that were on the map that had literally ceased to exist and then when he had the chance he found people who told the stories and in the oral tradition, put to writing there is some brilliant stuff.

But it was kind of hard for me to read. there is no plot. He starts off heading southeast to the Atlantic coast and goes clockwise from there around the country. He sleeps in cheap motels and his truck. He meets religious people and he frequently quotes Walt Whitman to anyone who will listen. He is cold and miserable a lot. Besides sitting in diners he goes to bars a lot and talks to people there. There is some connection between diners and bars which need to be explored in some kind of scholarly article. He often has a hard time finding a place to park the truck where he will not be harassed and it is hard to feature in the post 9-11 era that anyone would be even able to accomplish this anymore.
I recommend the book as a bed side companion but it took me almost a month to get through it. He is an excellent narrator and seems to have a gift for getting people to reveal things about what they perceive the history of their places are. In that same vein I am reading a book called “Psycho-Geography” written by one of my favorites Will Self that is based on an idea that the places we live shape or psyche. More later. For this one, it is a must read if you are a reader. It is a classic, but like all classics, it takes some work. Good luck.

7 Slingers on the ten scale