Concert Review: James Mc Murtry @ The Duck Room

Sooooo I went to see James Mc Murtry at he Duck Room last week. It was a school night but I love this guy. I believe him to be the greatest living and performing American singer/songwriter. I could be wrong, I have been before but I kind of doubt it. I mean Dylan is alive and performing and without question has a more comprehensive body of work but for at least the last yen years and perhaps the last 20 the shows have more often then not been incomprehensible and sucked more than a little. Mc Murtry is of course the son of American treasure Larry Mc Murtry (noted book collector and sometimes author, wrote"Lonesome Dove" and what not).  Mc Murtry has only been recording since 1987 or so.   His first CD was produced by John Cougar Mellencamp and had a lot of his band but it was sparsely produced and brilliant...but I digress.  

Unlike Dylan Mc Murtry is still putting out quality new material and performing tight shows.  He plays every Wednesday at midnight at the Continental Club in Austin when he is not on the road and what that means is that he is always honing his chops. Always performing, always working. He has had a resurgence over the last couple of years.  Outlaw Country on SIRIUS keeps him in solid rotation (her should have his own show' in fact they should broadcast him live from the Continental Club every Wednesday night) and "Choctaw Bingo" which he claims celebrates "the north Texas Sutheast Oklahoma methamphetamine industry" is really just a celebration of a fucked up white trash family reunion at their whacked out old uncle Slaben's place. But folks love it and it is a great sing along meh also recorded a song called "We can't make it here anymore" which has become an anthem of sorters for  the problems and opportunities in our post neo con enconomy.  It is biting, and sad and true. More overlooked are his brilliant ballads "Carlos and Rita"  and "Lights of Cheyenne". He is a BRILLIANT writer.   He has an authentic voice and never forget, he plays guitar like a rock star.  

So I went to see him.  I thought it was. A early show with opener at 8 and Mc Murtry at 9:00 but as is well documented, I am, of course, an idiot.  I showed up at 8:15 figuring I would miss part of the opener, a band called “The Five And Dimers”.  I was going to go with my wife because it was an early show but than another friend wanted to go and then it got late and so my wife decided not to go and then the friend decided not to go, which left me going by myself which suited me... just fine.  So I got there and of course had not bought a ticket and of course it was sold out.  I had not anticipated that so many people in St. Louis shared my excellent taste.  The Duck room has capacity of 350 so perhaps it was not that remarkable and was just bad planning because as stated immediately above and reaffirmed here, I am an idiot.  I stood around and there were several people waiting for tickets but I persevered.  Ultimately another person who like me (when I buy tickets0 bought more than he needed and I paid face value and got into the show.  

Unfortunately the show was not the show yet.  Doors were at 8, opener at 9, Mc Murtry at 10.  Ooops.  Did I mention it was a school night.  I got my spot centered on the stage, about 10 feet back.  They had set up tables in front which seemed a little stupid but... BEATLE Bob was there!  I had just had a discussion the week before about whether or not he was dead but apparently not.  the Five and Dimers came on prompltly as i sucked down a Stag and was trying to be removed but the band sounded really good.  It was a little Byrdsy, Burrito Brothers sounds with a nice violin and understated banjo and a decent singer guitarist.  They were really surprisingly good and I will need to devote a little time to their catalogue.  Tey got done at the crack of 9:50 and then we waited about 25 minutes for Mc Murtry and company to set up.

He came on at 10:15 and and he was accompanied by Darren Hess and Ronnie Johnson which is really all the band he ever needs.  He was playing loud using both of his electrics as he tore into “Turtle Bayou” and “Hurricane Season” and got the crowd going.  Really going.  A packed house swaying clapping and yelping and Mc Murtry playing a little bit to the crowd and a lot for himself. He has been doing this for so long and these guys are so tight together and it is nice to see someone at the height of his game.  He might be tired.  he might even be bored but you get the feeling he plays every night with fear and arrogance.  He respects his aurdience as much as they respect him and this Duck Room crowd was a little chatty once you got twenty feet from the stage.  I never understand why people come to a show like that and talk all the way through it but...shit happens.

He brought the house down with “Choctaw Bingo” and then sent the boys off and did some solo numbers where he showcased a little sweet acoustic guitar.  The band came back, the crowd amped uop and beatle Bob danced and danced with every drunken girl at the front of the stage.  Everything the guy does is so nuanced, whether it is the way he plays, sings or stares at the crowd.  He turned 50 last march and he has some hard miles put on that face and maybe on his soul as well but there is something there that sees and can channel a portion of America that lies just out of your headlights or just around the corner but there, and real and haunting and sometimes even joyful,  It was a serious performance and even after seeing him 10 times he is a wonder to watch. Don’t miss him the next time he comes to town.  And remember to buy a ticket prior to the show.

If you want to find out more or listen NPR covers him pretty well

http://www.npr.org/templates/search/index.php?&sort=match&searchinput=mcmurtry

This is the day....

Sooooo... the election is over. Democrats are still talking like idiots about a mandate they don’t have in a divided country. Some Republicans are soul searching like Austin Powers looking for his mojo but many have made up their minds that the “takers” won and that it is all about Republicans (makers) and Democrats (takers). The facts unfortunately do not bear this out as the solid Republican South (minus the great nation of Texas) represent the biggest block of “takers” from the Federal Government. This election, surprisingly was not “about the economy stupid”. If it was in our weak recovery, likely soon to slide back into recession, would have tanked Obama and the Democrats. This election was about tolderance. Tolerance of immigrants (illegals too), tolerance of gays (we dont know that we need same sex marriage but we do not believe in a homosexual agenda to undermine our values) and an ackowledgment that for most of us, even if we believe life begins at conception, that abortion is a very difficult, heartbreaking, soul wrenching problem which does not lend itself to simple answers in a broken world. Economically our country might be swirling in the toilet (although I don’t think that is a foregone conclusion) but this time, tolerance won. Individual rights won. Arguably America won because it stepped back from demonization of those we dont agree with and sent a message...a “mandate” to our leaders to get their shit together and walk us back from the precipice. If it can be done.

Right now they are again failing us miserably. Obama has doubled down on increased taxes for those who make over 250k. Although this makes sense to me I think we all forget that we still live in aprogressive tax system. We will not tax everything they make at that higher rate, just the amounts they are making over 250k. Republicans demand entitlement cuts but there is no one who believes we can cut our way out of this defecit. The main thing they cannot do is give ANY ground. The main thing we need out of Washington is certainty. If we are going to be taxed more, TELL US! If we are going to not get social security till we are 70...TELL US! It will all suck but at least we can plan for it and try and do our best. But they won’t. They will not do it becaus we have a broken political class that we have made scred of their own shadows. These margianalized people who we have elected do not have the courage of their convictions and the ones that do are frankly so crazy on the right or the left that I wish they did not.. So what is going to happen is another round of can kicking. Debt cieling raised. Sequester delayed, each side getting a bone of compromise out of the other with a promise to do something way out in the future and we will remain uncertain and continue to have to find our way in the darkness.

Which we can do. If we have the courage of our convictions. If we work hard. We can take care of our families and ourselves. Meet our needs. Take care of those who God throws into our poath who need our care, worship as we please and speak as we please and be blessed even as these idiots drive the ship into the rocks. I decry the Republican visage of “the exceptional American”. I decry it, not because I don’t believe it in my arrogant heart, but because these people who trumpet American Exceptionalism are the ones that are so afraid. they cannnot do anything because the government. they are uncertain because of the government. they cannot sleep at night because of the government. they are worried for their childrens futures BECAUSE OF THE GOVERNMENT! What is exceptional about fear? What I see on FOX news are “Exceptionally Afraid” Americans. What I hear when I listen to Glenn Beck is a man who makes money off of that fear. It sickens me.

 

We are all blessed to live in the greatest country God has put on earth at the greatest time ever to be an American. We are the most powerful Country with the most natural resources in the world. The best combination of soil, water, timber, oil and gas on the planet. We can leave a legacy for our children and granchildren of peace, stability, wealth, strength and kindness if we all just work and take care of ourselves, our families, our churches, synagogues and masques. If we take care of people like we are all taught to do it. We will be great, our children will thrive.

We are responsible for our families and out values. Not the government. We are responsable for our finances. Not the government. If they take more of our bread, exceptional Americans figure out a way to bake more bread. Who are we? We are going to find out. It is going to be hard and it is going to be great. Who are we? Get to work and stop bitching. Who are we? Stop pointing the fingers at other. Who are we? Bake the bread. Enjoy your family and love your neighbor and get to work.

 

Psalm 118: 24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Ruminations

 Happy Sunday.  I am a fallen Republican.  The party lost me somewhere at the end of Clinton’s first term when my young, yuppie, successful professional friends and their wives were all on the porch at the country club and one of the woman was crying about how the re-election of Clinton would literally be the death of us, economically and certainly morally.  As people joined the conversation agreeing heartily with her sentiments I realized that these people did not have a clue about how the rest of the country felt, the direction (inexorably) the country was going towards multiculturalism and how good they, themselves had it.  They were tone deaf.  Some of those people is now a local or regional muckity muck in the Republican party.  The Newt Gingrich contract with America followed by the neo-con (W Bush) takeover cemented their beliefs that they were “right” in the most morally righteous sense and inexorable.

My Christianity (and I do not say this sanctimoniously because “MY” Christianity is DEEPLY flawed) took me in a different direction.  I believe there is a role for government in caring for the voiceless.  I know my church tries but is inadequate to the task.  I know Republicans give more than Democrats and that is awesome but I believe most of that is given from plenty which diminishes the awesomeness somewhat.  The Democrats have always left me squeamish.  I am against abortion (which from my point of view also mandates being against Capital punishment). I believe in allowing Gays to have ALL legal rights accorded to the rest of us.  I think Ronald reagan handled it the “right” way and that we need to make everyone who is here today an American wholesale, ignore their braking of our laws and ackowledged the poverty and hopelessness that brought them here and ackowledge that they are making us a greater America, as every wave of immigrants has made us a greater America. We do need (I think) to secure our borders but I am NOT building a border fence along our 3500 mile border with Canada.  I do not understand why we have been unable to secure our southern borders and would like to have it explained to me.   I believe the wealthy should pay more taxes because no one benefits from our great countries systems more than them, they have proven it.  I will not work any less hard if I am being taxed at a marginally greater rate.  The very idea that people would do that seems asinine coming from a group that trumpets American exceptionalism.  The idea that these exceptional Americans are uncertain and afraid and are hoarding their cash does not sound very exceptional to me.

Anyway, you have probably stopped reading.  Sorry.   I voted for Obama.  I am not proud of the fact.  He disappointed me in that in his first term he had a mandate to call us to something greater but instead was the flip side of the same coin and it saddened me.  We march on now into a murky, difficult future.  Let’s do it boldly.  Let’s hope President Obama can be better and smarter. He is off to a bad start.  His first speech was not a hand being reached accross the aisle but a scolding “send me the bill I want, I have a pen”.  What a bunch of crap.  What a tone deaf message.  He is like a dog with a bone.  The Republican leadership needs to save face.  They deserve a chance to react rationally without being bullied and Obama is blowing it, AND he does not have a strong enough position to win.  

Let’s hope the Republican leadership realizes that if they can assist in a recovery, they can assume the mantle again in 2016 with a fine man who is not defined by traditional marriage, the right to life and illegal immigration.  George Bush ruined compassionate conservatism and that is a shame because ultimately empowering individuals to succeed is the most compassionate thing.  But if we cannot figure out how to do that, Jesus told us to take care of them if we can.  The government provides one way of doing that however imperfectly. Government is not inherently evil, only inherently stupid.  It can be fixed.

God’s peace and thanks for stirring my brain.  Sorry about the diatribe.  There is much to be said for being the loyal opposition.  The Republicans have lost that.  People like you have the power to bring it back and I would be happy to come back home to the party of Lincoln.  I pray for change but America remains the greatest country in the world and we are blessed beyond our comprehension.

There's Got To Be A Morning After

Soooooo.... the Diner Review was conspicuously silent on this years election.  In 2008 I had to have 20 posts or more related to politics, the election, Obama, Mc Cain, Palin... it all seemed like high drama.  This year it just seems... or seemed...silly.  It still does.  6 billion spent so we can have the same general people in place as before.  A prospect of more ideology, more doctrine, more purity of political purpose and more gridlock.  I could of voted for either of them for President.  Part of me definitely wanted someone else to blame and wanted a new shot at something different.  Our President powerfully disappointed me in his first term.  Yes, he inherited an economy that had fallen off the cliff, and a world economy that was just about to go.  Hard for us to be healthy in a much touted global economy when the globe is not so healthy itself.  But still, he disappointed.  He was elected the first time with a real mandate for real change, and he failed us.  he might have tried to be the opposite of George Bush which was welcome but he was the opposite side of the same coin.  He had an opportunity to lead us in a bold new direction and redirect the conversation about what it means to be the greatest country in the world and the responsibility that comes with it.  Not to live in a million dollar house and drive a hundred thousand dollar car and provide your children’s every whim, but to be a leader of the world based on our famed Judeo-Christian beliefs.

But he screwed the pooch.

He stimulused us in an old fashion way feeding the Democratic pork and running up more debt. He failed to regulate seriously his friends in the banks and “too big to fail” is now policy whether we admit it or not.  People are still focused on themselves and their things and getting rich.  Class warfare became the re-election theme and it worked.  The Democrats ran a really good guy, a religious guy with respectable values and a history of success.  But he was wooden, and he was so damn rich and ultimately 51% could not relate or did not want to relate.

So we are now in worse need than we were 4 years ago.  We spent our way down the road and doubled and tripled up on the debt.  The world economy is still teetering on the edge.  We still have an un-swallowed rat of housing debt rolling and roiling through the snakes stomach and the student loan bubble is about to burst.  There are some positive things but they all pale in front the mountain of debt.

So.... fortunately for the President I have it all mapped out.  here is a way to really make a difference and make things happen.  To be the aspirational leader you were orginally elected to be when each of us pinned our hopes and dreams on your Muslim, not born here, community activist ass.

1. Ask (tell) Harry read and Nacny Pelosi that they must step down from leadership.  They have been divisive and are spectacularly unsuccessful.  They taunted when they were in control and skulked and connived when things didnt go their way.  they are polarizing and they represent the old way that brought us here.  Be polite, throw them a nice party and get them out of the way.  The Republicans have the same problem but Boehner is a human being.  The little guy, Eric Cantor should be fired to as being a divisive, smug little prick but HE is not your problem.  Pelosi and Reed are.  Do the right thing.

2. Go to Mitt Romney and apologize for the ugliness of the campaign and the tactics of attack you used to beat him.  Mean it when you apologize.  You should be embarrassed.  You demeaned your office and the country when you allowed your dogs to go after him.  Hire him in a job that is scheduled to disappear at the end of your presidency as (and I know everyone hates the word) Tsar oe Czar of the balanced budget.  Bring back Simpson and Bowles as his Lieutenants.  The orders are simple.  Do as little damage as possible while right sizing entitlements and the military. Put Colin Powell and Petraus on the committee also to assist in getting the military what they need and not what they want.  Taxes will have to be raised through a new tax code.  Give this group carte blanche and support their recommendations.  

3. Be humble and go to Israel.  Sit down with their jack ass Prime Minister who treated you like a school child and tell him that you will commit 100% of Americas military might and financial stability to an Israel that agrees to a two State solution, NOW.  If needed bomb Iraq and send troops in to find and destroy suspected atomic sites.  Then leave.  If Israel balks explain to the American people the bargain you offered and put it to a vote to stand by them with a deal to guaranty their peace, or let them stand alone.  Explain to the Palestinians that they must control their own people and then when rockets fall on Israel that we will support Israel to massively retaliate totally out of proportion to every attack.  Move the Blue Helmets from the UN in between and finance them.  Tell Israel that it is their business where their capital is but it cannot be on Palestinian ground or interfere with their right to visit their holy sites.

4. Leave Afghanistan and make clear to them and Pakistan that the world is sick to death of them.  Make clear our support is behind India and that we will assist the Russians, Chinese and Indians in dealing with their countries if terrorists are harbored there.  Pakistan is the real problem because they have the bomb and are moving towards extremism.  We must have a new UN Security Council resolution wherein everyone agrees that if Pakistan or it’s cousin South Korea use a nuclear bomb that their country will be annihilated.

Part 4 might be a bridge too far.  Shit, Part 3 likely is as well.  Israel is in an untenable position long term.  Not just Iran but the whole Muslim community when they speak frankly speaks of their extermination.  I am not sure the situation can be salvaged but it certainly cannot be done without significant give and take.  Anyway, how about 1 and 2.  Do it for me.