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

Happy New Year: Music Is Everywhere!

Soooooo my son gave me a XM/SIRIUS thingy for my car and a 3 month subscription. My wife already had it in her new car. I am really excited but it made me realize that I am starting to get overwhelmed by music availability. I have more places to listen to new and varied music than ever but feel like I am hearing less and less that is new that I am really interested in listening to. Lets look at how I used to find music:
1. Rolling Stone
2. KDHX
3. No Depression Magazine; and
4. Word of Mouth

Then I would buy a CD and make a mix tape to listen to in my car. Then I put music on my computer and that was awesome. I could make my own mix CD’s and after a few months of burning had most of my music library on my computer. I am convinced that there has never been more music out there as bands use he technology to make their music and distribute it but it is just too much to sift through. When we had only the record companies you were made aware of all major releases through advertising and buzz and then as the industry evolved which Indie labels were worth following. As the business has devolved it is a glorious chaos. Now I am in the middle of doing something called “iTunes Match” where I put it all my music on the cloud. I am told that I can now access my music library on any device and at any time. I don’t even know yet exactly how that will benefit me but I also know that Apple will find a way. In regard to music generally though, I am just sitting here feeling overwhelmed. Here are some of the things overwhelming with music as we start 2012:

1. Spotify: Spotify is cool and has easy access for even the computer semi literate like myself. Ease of use is what Apple gave us along with design that was more like art and made you feel cool for owning it. Spotify is similarly easy and intuitive for streaming artists you want to check out. But you got to find the artists. They do not make suggestions or at least meaningful suggestions and if your tastes are all over the place, don’t go here to find music, just to listen to it.

2. On Line Music Reviews: They are all over but what are the “trusted sources”. There is a great music industry blogger/email new letter guy named Bob Lefstz lefsetz.com who has turned me onto some good stuff but finding the guys you trust is really going to be the key to on line music in the near term. Who are the “filters” going to be that turn you on to good shit?

3. You Tube: A day killer. Pump in a bands name and check out videos and sometimes just the music of anyone...in the world. It will suggest similarly named videos but can do nothing to suggest types of music or artists.

4. Pandora: Is still fun and one out every 10 songs is something I have never heard and one out of every 20 is an artists I have never heard. I like to leave it streaming while I am working or reading to see what, if anything they come up with and take notes.

5. XM Radio: Great for filling need of what you want but you have to know where the new music shows are on your favorite channels. Still more for listening to what you like, rather than finding what you might like.

6. Pitchformmedia.com: Overwhelming! You should always want to go hear but they cover everything and whether you or I like it, electronica is huge, rap and hip hop are still forces and they cover EVERYTHING. They do it all in a self important justified “voice” that appeals to me. Sometimes wrong but never unsure, Pitchfork provides new music, and opinions as to quality. The key there is once again spending time and finding who the reviewers are that can really point you in the right direction.

7. NPR: For an old fart this is probably the best. Listen to their shows and touch their music pages at NPR.com and they will turn you on to some good stuff. They have become a trusted source and filter for me.

8. No Depression.com: This is what is left of the old No Depression magazine...RIP. It is still good for the alt-country/Americana music I love. My one complaint is that they are relentless cheerleaders for the genre. Sometimes you have to call something crap and stand by it. Everything they review is glowingly reviewed. Still, their annual top ten lists are something I always tune in to.

9. Radio: Normal, terrestrial radio is dead and irrelevant for music. Unless you are going to be satisfied with classic rock or big hat country, it is dead as a music source. Live with it. Move on. KDHX is the sole exception to this locally and they really are a treasure. They of course veer towards the Americana music that I like but they are deep on blues as well and provide a gathering place for those excited by music. Become a member. kdhx.org. Other than that, listen to NPR or if you want to be angry listen to 97.1. Other than that ride in silence.

Ok....so that is my thought on the current overwhelming state of music. There has never been a better time to be a fan and to find obscure things that no one else has ever heard of. Unfortunately it takes time and it takes sifting and I don’t have it anymore. At 50 life has suddenly...caught up to me. I never thought it would happen to me.

Concert Review: The Decemberists At The Pageant, St. Louis

Sooooo.... I had the opportunity to see The Decemberists twice on the same tour. Why? WHY? WHY? WHY? do you go see the same band on the same tour? A couple of reasons:
1. Dooling had an extra ticket for Omaha and I needed a road trip; and
2. I am a fan
That is right. My bad old hating, cynical self is a fan of the Decemberists and their pretentious little prick and genius, Colin Meloy. What happened to being a fan? rarely do people gush any more and when they gush at my age it is more likely to be about a red wine or a great deal on a flat screen screen TV. It is a little sad and I am certainly part of the problem berating other peoples taste when they are so bold as to put forth an opinion.

But the Decemberists and Meloy are at the top of their game. Off of a string or pretentious concept albums telling stories through a song cycle that owes more to Shakespeare than to Lou Reed. He is an awful, horrible, dark, talented writer and he is absolutely at the height of his powers. We all know from our prior reading that this type of talent has a shelf life. There are some that are great enough that they have three or four creative high spots in a long career but for most...you burst on the seen for a few years, spill a lifetime (up to that point) of angst... and then either disappear and retire (smart and classy and no one ever does it) or thrash around in irrelevance and eventually end up playing the Ameristar Casino for a paycheck.

So when you get a chance to see someone who is doing it, right now, you go. The new CD will be one of the 10 best of the year. It is a totally accessible CD veering towards being as alt-country as possible, (without a steel guitar) and it is frankly just a fun album with great lyrics.

So raise a glass to turnings of the season
And watch it as it arcs towards the sun
And you must bear your neighbor's burden within reason
And your labors will be born when all is done

I saw the band in Omaha 10 days before at a sit down concert at the Holland Center. It was one of the first shows of the tour and he was a little tight but he also could not create the requisite energy in a sit down venue. He in retrospect was clearly sturggling and every song had to end with a big finish that would go on for ever and the crowd would clap thinking he was done and then...he would jump again, freewheel with the guitar again and then finally... end. he was trying to put on a show but the crown could not hop up.

And now I was going to see him again because I had ordered the tickets a couple of months ago. On a classic note, I had Jon order the tickets and when I got home from work to go to the show... he could not find them. I go crazy about this type of stuff but he had his receipt for the tickets and was able to (after I had a brain hemorrhage) get the nice Ticketmaster (TM) people to agree to print some more for us at the will call window. Win, win....WINNING!

Once again we had Steve Earle’s son Justin Townes (Van Zandt) Earle open the show and it immediately was a more connected show. The crowd was attentive if not respectful and interacted with him as he told a few stories and sang pretty much the same set. Once again a great opener, warming the crowd up but not raising expectations too much. He really can play guitar, he writes a good song and I will make an effort to buy his new album and see him when he comes around with a full band.

He finished. I had another beer. We were able to stand on the floor about 20 feet from the stage. I was able to get a beer at the bar but could not take the beer on to the floor since it was an all ages show. This seemed a small price to pay and i was able to grab another beer between sets because I was dry as dirt. Once again the lights dimmed. I was once again treated to the alleged Mayor of Portland telling me to close my eyes...imagine myself in a Pacific rain forest (as he allegedly hovered in a large ship over the venue) as a group of strangers wandered through the forest towards us, and they are The Decemberists! Yay! The lights come up and they break into the set and start with “The Infanta” and then “Down By The Water” and I was worried he was going to replicate the Omaha show but then we got “Calamity Song” and I knew it would be a different show.

Meloy was working the crowd from the start and the band was even tighter having performed the show a few more times and they tore it up. I do not know whether the show was so much better because of the venue and being able to stand and stand close to the stage if you wanted, or whether it is because there was booze, or whether it was just better. But it was better. Much better. It was tight and it rocked and I liked the set selection more. He played “Don’t Carry It All” and as if just to piss my Omaha host off he played “The Sporting Life”. It was awesome. The whole set list is below:
The Infanta
Down By the Water
Calamity Song
Rox In The Box
The Engine Driver
The Bagman's Gambit
Won't Want For Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Crane Wife 3
The Sporting Life
January Hymn
The Rake's Song
Don't Carry It All
16 Military Wives
This Is Why We Fight
The Chimbley Sweep


Hr did a three song encore and that was that but it was great night at the Pageant and while I questioned seeing them twice on the same tour within ten days.... definitely not a mistake. The new album is powerful. Go buy “The King Is Dead”. Even this early it will be on a lot of ten best lists.

THE OMAHA POSTER!

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