Nostalgia, Disillusion And Defiance

Following on in the honourable tradition of such as Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle is current Americana artist James McMurtry. This album, Childish Things, is another that portrays life in the badlands of the US, the "white trash" areas that fall through the cracks of the national consciousness. There is also a duality about the album, many tracks have a nostalgic feel looking back to childhood and a seemingly better time when the family values of such places still held strong. Songs like See The Elephant, Memorial Day and Holiday are in this vein. They are contrasted with songs about the current state of decay and despair, nowhere more tellingly than in the searing keystone track on the album We Can't Make It Here Any More, where making it is used in the sense both of manufacturing and of surviving the day to day. This is played in a talking blues style with biting guitar, relentless beat and lyrics which both describe the hardship and castigate those responsible. There are also a couple of more personal relationship songs. Musically, McMurtry takes the lead with his vocal, guitar and keyboard work, backed by solid rhythm accompaniments and understated modern production values. The settings meld country, folk and blues influences in a familiar but effective way. He has a warm distinctive voice, not great but suited to the material and falling somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed. A fine example of how music that can vaguely be termed "rock" can survive into a kind of maturity.