In my post on Booked Up in Archer City I mentioned that the store had the feel a grandparent’s house where bits and pieces of the lives of friends and loved ones are scattered around to see. What I failed to mention is that I bought one of those things – a copy of Live in Aught Three by James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards.
If you have ever found something special in an unusual way or place you’ve probably had the feeling I’ve got about this CD. When I picked it up off the counter at the last second I thought this excellent recording might be as relatively unknown as the place I found it, but I’ve started to think that just can’t be possible. It’s too good not to have a wide following, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find out that I’m just the last guy on earth to hear about it.
Artistry runs in families and so I suppose it should be no surprise that Larry McMurtry’s son James is an artist too, and when listening to his music it makes perfect sense that his dad is a writer. The lyrics are top notch. But so is everything.
As the title tells well enough, these tracks are live recordings. I can’t tell you how good their quality is. For me the purchase of a live CD is very often a let down. I have a hard time getting through the low fidelity and to the music. That is not a problem here – the opposite happens. Listen on a good system and you’d swear the band must be somewhere close to you but out of sight. Close your eyes and you are outside on a fine spring evening with your friends and a bottle of beer. It’s that good.
And then the music itself is just hard to beat. The sound, the story telling, the pace and that exceptional quality of a good compilation that can only occur when everything just goes together – they are all there. As for what kind of music it is exactly I can’t say. I suggest reading the reviews to get the thoughts of someone who actually knows what they are talking about. My taste in music is as haphazard as my taste in every other art form. I can’t tell you what I like as much as I can point to it, and I point to a lot of things that don’t have much in common.
I also make no secret of the fact that I like my entertainment on the intellectually challenging side, and McMurtry is easily up to that. When I listen to tracks like “No More Buffalo”, “Out Here in the Middle” and “Lights of Cheyenne” I swear I can’t tell if he likes living out here in the middle, if he doesn’t or if there would be any place he’d prefer either way. With “60 Acres” and “Choctaw Bingo” you can’t help but think that he views Texas more cynically, but “Rachel’s Song” makes you wonder if he’d ever leave anyway. If this music were wine, it would have such complexity and reputation that it would be available by auction only.
James McMurtry and his accomplished band play down in Austin they say. Maybe I’ll get down there and meet them some time.
Photo by Craig Seth.
[Update - unlike my friend over at the arc of time (who makes full disclosure and also knows something about music) I get nothing if you follow the link above and buy this CD. This is not because I disdain commercialism. Color me capitalist. It's not even because I frown on flogging while blogging. It's simply because I don't know how. Yet.]
