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Music CD - James McMurtry: Childish Things
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Music CD: Childish Things
Artist: James McMurtry
List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $9.00
Your Save: $ 7.98 ( 47% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Compadre Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. See The Elephant
2. Childish Things
3. We Can't Make It Here
4. Ole Slew Foot
5. Bad Enough
6. Restless
7. Memorial Day
8. Six-Year Drought
9. The Old Part Of Town
10. Charlemagne's Home Town
11. Pocatello
12. Holiday
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0616892658429
Label: Compadre Records
Manufacturer: Compadre Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Compadre Records
Release Date: 2005-09-06
Studio: Compadre Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite CD's
Comment: This one spends most of it's time in my car. Great road music and very entertaining. James's music always amazes me in the way he can dig down and grab stories as if he's living them at the time he writes them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: McMurtry's mad as hell ...
Comment: I heard an interview with James McMurty on National Public Radio one day while driving home from Louisiana. In the time it took to get from Marshall to New Diana, I fell completely under the spell of McMurty's hard-driving music and tough-as-nails lyrics.
McMurtry reminds me of a young Bob Dylan, singing about difficult personal relationships, society's ills and the horros of war.
"Bad Enough" tells of war on the home front.
Where have you been?
I don't want to know.
Probably some place
I wouldn't want to go.
Who were you with?
Who did you see?
What did you talk about?
What did you say about me?
Where have you been?
I won't let it drop?
What were you thinking?
When you gonna stop?
In the traditional "Slew Foot," McMurtry sings of a wild bear, but about half-way through, you realize he isn't singing about Gentle Ben at all.
He's big around the middle
He's broad around the rump.
Making 90 miles an hour,
Taking 30 feet of jump.
He ain't never been caught.
He ain't never been treed.
Some folks say he looks a lot like me.
The hardest-hitting song from "Childish Things" is "We Can't Make It Here Anymore," an anthem to tough times and war veterans.
There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
A flag on the wheelchair, flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free.
No one's paying much mind to him.
The V.A. budget's just stretched so thin,
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war.
We can't make it here anymore.
That big old building was a textile mill.
It fed our children and it paid our bills.
But, they turned us out and they closed the door.
We can't make it here anymore.
. . .
Some have maxed out all their credit cards.
Some are working two jobs and living in cars.
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof.
Won't pay for a drink, if you gotta have proof
Just try it yourself, Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour will go.
Take a part-time job in one of your stores.
I'll bet you can't make it here anymore.
You might not agree with his message, but there is no denying McMurtry's mighty talent. Perhaps he inherited his storytelling skills from his famous father, author Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove"). This apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
In a world full of pablum-infused musical mush, it's refreshing to know someone is out there writing songs that make us take a long, hard look at our world and ourselves.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of those you can't get out of your mind
Comment: I love this CD by McMurtry. I'm not knowledgable enough to write a long review, only to say I am mesmerized by him and have ordered several of his other works since enjoying this one so much.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece - quite impressive
Comment: This is a masterwork. James McMurtry, with Childish Things, has created an album that won the Esky award for 2006 (an award for music that goes beyond the expected) and he beat out Neil Young last September when Childish Things and "We Can't Make It Here" won the Americana Music Awards for album and song of the year, respectively. That win put Neil's Living With War and Let's Impeach the President into second place!
Neil is my favorite popular artist - but James' album is truly as fine an album as one could want. See the Elephant, Childish Things and We Can't Make it Here Anymore are outstanding and everything else is excellent. A fine addition to any serious music lover's collection.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You Owe It To Yourself To Hear This CD!
Comment: James McMurtry seems to me to be one of those artists that you either like or don't like...not much middle ground here. If you're already familiar with his music, and you like it, then you'll love this one. If you've never heard any of his music, then this one would be a great place to start.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Within the song cycle of innocence and experience that is Childish Things, James McMurtry continues to explore musical territory between rock and a hard place. The social commentary of the relentlessly bleak "We Can't Make It Here" and "Six-Year Drought" is more pointed than ever, while the arrangements throughout are as taut, muscular and slap-in-the-face direct as the songs. While the opening "See the Elephant," the title cut, and "Memorial Day" evoke a younger person's sense of wonder, the mortal lessons have plainly taken their toll by the closing "Holiday." Along the way, highlights range from the accordion-laced yearning of "Charlemagne's Home Town" to the Chuck Berry-style, guitar-driven rock of "The Old Part of Town" to a stirring duet with Joe Ely on "Old Slew Foot." With his terse, cut-to-the-bone artistry, McMurtry never wastes a word or a note. --Don McLeese
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