Album Review – James McMurtry’s “Complicated Game”
Venturing into ramshackle dive bars and overturning the stones of socioeconomic depravity to unearth the forgotten refugees cast off from the American dream and escaping the enslavement of technology by hammering out livings on the outskirts of society, Texas singer and second generation writer James McMurtry pens odes to the marginalized inhabitants of the margins, meticulously chiseling out curvatures with such intimate understanding and attention to detail that he eventually reveals canonized demi-heroes of everyday forgotten life tied to the land and living like prose in their tacked together existences while the masses speed past on the highway unbeknownst.
These are the people with flip phones on prepaid plans who’ve never heard of Wikipedia. These are the folks that never even pondered it was possible to leave their hometown, or who never recovered from doing so. These are people who live off the land and sea not for sport, but for food and raiment, who can fashion a pair of pantyhose into a fan belt in a pinch, and know their way around saltwater tackle like the rules of Spades.
As a quality, not quantity kind of songwriter, James McMurtry, waiting six years to release this newest album Complicated Game, made it well worth the aching wait. McMurtry has been quoted as saying he hates writing new material, but listeners are no wiser once they behold these 12 finely-tuned works of songwriting eloquence. This is character-driven poetry that would do his novel-writing and Pulitzer Prize-winning father proud (can we quit comparing the two yet!?! ), while presenting something a wide swath of music aficionados and appreciators can endear to.
Where some McMurtry songs and albums open themselves up to fair criticism about waxing too political, Complicated Game is something you can enjoy with your polarized in-laws…if they like good music that is. Where McMurtry says his peace about the ills of the planet, it’s done so subtle-like and slyly that the sentiments are universal, like in the song about the complexities behind voluntary conscription called “South Dakota.”
Complicated Game covers an impressive swath of geography, from the hard scratch inner plains to the salty air of the East Coast. It even makes a stop on the “Long Island Sound” for an uncharacteristically cheery moment—a pub singalong toasting to fat times conducted by a transplanted Oklahoman.
Geography, and the artifacts that clutter up the lives of these low living characters are so cunning in how they’re conveyed by McMurtry, like when the protagonist washes down his blood pressure medicine with Red Bull in one of the album’s most surprising and modernly-arranged songs “How’m I Gonna Find You Know.” A thumping, lingering bass beat underwrites a banjo bed as James rattles off one impressive line of script after another accompanied by the tinkles of a triangle, resulting in a fully immersive musical experience.
The breadth of knowledge McMurtry brings to his subjects never fails to impress, especially in a song like “Carlisle’s Haul” about fishing commercially out-of-season to help solve a neighbor’s financial woes, once again showing James’s propensity to use character to illustrate both sides of a political issue, and speak to the root causes which in the end are more common to all than on the surface.
McMurtry also has his moment of highlighting love in his own off-kilter sort of way, evidenced in songs like “She Loves Me” and “These Things I’ve Come To Know.”
Six long years it took, and it may be six more before a fresh new batch arrives. But James McMurtry delivers on the promise of being one of our generation’s preeminent songwriters who can say the things that twist the rest of our tongues, create characters we never knew but feel hauntingly familiar, and fill us with an appreciation of life, both the good and the bad, and understand it is all part of the brilliant tapestry we’re all embedded in and unrolling before us.
Two guns up.
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February 24, 2015 @ 6:44 pm
James Mcmurtry is the shit. Great review!
February 24, 2015 @ 6:50 pm
Two Guns huh? Thanks for reviewing this one.
I’ve been looking forward to some new stuff from him for a couple of years.
I would go to see him live and ask if there was anything new coming soon (I know all artists love hearing that). He would kinda give a casual nod.
As much as I absolutely loved Just us kids, I didn’t go to see him the last time he came through because I like at least a little variety once in awhile.
February 24, 2015 @ 7:45 pm
Great review.
February 24, 2015 @ 9:28 pm
Seems like the Bro-Cunts that want to rap, could study JM and How’m I gonna find you now. Enjoyable review.
February 25, 2015 @ 7:53 am
This album is awesome well worth the wait
February 25, 2015 @ 8:55 am
Very nice. Hope my copy gets here soon. Got a preview of some of these songs (including the two include above) when I saw him in November. Interestingly, when he played them, he might have talked about them a little, but didn’t identify them as new songs or mention anything about them being on a new album or when the new one was coming out. Taciturn dude. Looking forward to seeing him again in April.
I know that he often gets mentioned in the same breath as people like Steve Earle when the topic of political songwriters come up. He’s really only done a few overtly political songs, but of course, one of them was the magnum opus “We Can’t Make it Here Anymore.” Then, a couple on Just Us Kids. I read an interview where he seems to indicate that he’s not unhappy to get away from those types of songs as he feels feels like he’s lecturing.
February 25, 2015 @ 8:58 am
“These are the people with flip phones on prepaid plans who”™ve never heard of Wikipedia.”
Lucky bastards.
Question for Trig: McMurtry has been playing a song live for a couple years now called “What’s The Matter Now?” A few years ago he said it would be on his next album. A year or so ago, I think I recall a youtube video of a clean, studio version of the song that has since disappeared. Any idea what happened to this song? I really liked it when he played it live….
February 25, 2015 @ 9:02 am
Huh, I remember that now. That’s a good question. Maybe they decided to hold it back for a future album. I really don’t know.
February 26, 2015 @ 5:40 am
Bought this yesterday after reading this article. Really, really good stuff.
February 26, 2015 @ 8:20 am
Nice review.
Great album.
Less than a dozen comments? SMH….do the album reviews at least get as many views as the bro country diatribes?
February 26, 2015 @ 9:29 am
Trig,
In past references to McMurtry, you have called him an “elite” singer songwriter. One specific mention was that he appealed to NPR types, etc. Are/were you saying that he is “elite” in the sense that he is one of the greatest, or is he elite in the sense that he doesn’t appeal to the benighted masses, but only to the snobbish few who bring their own handmade jute shopping bags with them to Whole Foods?
By the way, the handful of people I know who are McMurtry devotees are fringe radical right-wingers. My thought is that McMurtry appeals to critics who are elitists, but the actual fans are not those people.
February 26, 2015 @ 10:49 am
I’d say McMurtry appeals to a pretty broad swath of people. I saw him play in Denton, TX last year Possessed by Paul James and the crowd was a mixture of college kids with tattoos and skinny jeans and middle age-slightly older folks in cowboy hats and Wranglers. A lot of the younger people didn’t seem to know all the songs, but everyone seemed to enjoy the music quite a bit. My experience is purely anecdotal though. Denton is a college town, so that could be why there were so many younger people there.
February 26, 2015 @ 10:59 am
When I’ve seen him in Pittsburgh our group of friends (30’s) is generally the youngest group in the place by at least fifteen years. The last time I saw him, there wasn’t a single person in the place (except the bartender) under 45.
February 26, 2015 @ 11:09 am
My “elite” tag had to do with the level of his songwriting, not the type of crowd he may or may not draw. Since I’ve only seen him at his long-standing residency at The Continental Club in Austin, I’m not much help in who comes to see him out of his home element. I haven’t seen anything from NPR about this album so far.
November 30, 2015 @ 2:05 pm
A fantastic album that belongs in the collections of all music lovers. One can visualize the stories unfolding for the characters in his songs.