Customer Reviews

It Had to Happen

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If radio had any imagination, James McMurtry would be a superstar. Folk rock simply does not get any better than this. "It had to happen," his fourth album, is also his best. Not a bad song, but the tracks that really stand out are "No More Buffalo," "Twelve O'Clock Whistle," and "Jaws of Life," which are all lengthy tributes to Americana. Also of note is the fine cover of Kinky Friedman's "Wild Man from Borneo," showing once again that James has a sense of humor. If you buy one McMurtry album, this should be the one.

Some years ago, I chanced to hear James McMurtry perform at a small club near where I live. He was promoting his first album which had received accolades in the alternative press, and though the crowd was very thin, he played as if he were playing for thousands.
I bought that album on cassette and still have it, but I hadn't thought much about him until recently when a friend to whom I had introduced McMurtry's music brought out a stack of his newer CDs for me to hear.
Among those was It Had To Happen. When I first put it on, I was pleased but not overwhelmed. McMurtry's unmistakeable voice and style were there to be sure, but no song initially stood out. Then, as I listened more closely, it began to grow on me.
McMurtry is nothing if not sardonic and that is a quality I admire in a songwriter. Dylan has it, Nick Cave has it, and its clear that McMurtry has it too. You gotta love story songs like 12 O'clock Whistle, the sneering Sixty Acres, and the wistful No More Buffalo. But to my ears, the best song on the album is the lyrically and musically powerful Be With Me. McMurtry's bitter, sardonic delivery is just stunning and makes it a song I could play over and over again.
There are a few weak spots that detract from a higher rating, notably the too frequent repetition of the title of the otherwise well-written Jaws of Life and the inclusion of Kinky Friedman's Wild Man From Borneo. Despite that, I highly recommend buying this obscure gem by a singer/songwriter who deserves more fame than he has.

From the dusty roads and rocky mesas of Texas to the intimate and biting conversations around a grandparent's dinner table, McMurtry combines powerful melody and skillful musicainship with brilliant lyricism to bring us one of the best records of the year, maybe of the decade. The hooks in these sonngs stick to the bone, earned through smart song craftsmanship and pure, raw emotion.

The song "12 O'Clock Whistle" plays like a great fiction set to a driving ryhthm, as a soulful acoustic melody walks us through a grandchild's day with his parents. There are multiple characters and the dialogue is strikingly authentic: "And granny was hanging up wash / talking acorss the fence / neighbor lady nodded like it all made sense / 'She's just gonna stay with him till the kids are grown / fetch me that clothespin off up the ground would you hon'"

McMurtry's sense of himself and where he's from are overshadowed only by his sense of who we are, good and bad, right or wrong. I don't know the right label for his music, so I'll use one that makes sense: humbling.

The best CD I own. Great for any mood you are in ... down, alone, happy, on top of the world. If you have ever driven in West Texas, you know this CD captures the feel of the land...open, raw, western. GREAT MUSIC FOR DRIVIN' and THINKIN'.

James Mcmurtry can paint a better picture with words than that of every artist in the Louvre put together. He sees the world through the eyes of a man that has been around much longer than he has. To not mention every song on this CD is a travesty but any McMurtry fan will know evry song is right on lyrically and musically. "12 O'Clock Whistle" is a wonderful song about small town Texas and the everyday "goings-on" that are uneventful and so intensly poetic. "Peter Pan" will take you back through childhood and put a grin on your face through the whole song. James is as solid on stage as he is on his CD's. He writes as well as Dylan and Townes Van Zandt. He could possibly be the greatest songwriter of this new millenium. He's hit his stride. Ladies and Gentlemen, the horse is out of the gates and he's not looking back. Put your bets down. He's no longshot as is no CD you are considering buying by this truly talented artist.

One of our vastly unappreciated national treasures, James McMurtry is always worth listening and paying attention to (although, live, he likes to chide the audience: "Where I come from, they dance to this kind of music"). Here, he does the unthinkable: offering a portrait of the young rebel suffering the tragedy of maturity. And so it's a portrait of the artist/outcast moving on. Few American artists can undergo this process and survive with energy and vision intact; McMurtry is magic. He gets stronger, angrier, deeper, more convincing, more passionate and ready to fight--and, hell, he's all grown up too. "Be With Me" is better than Eminem's "Stan," better than any song in any genre about the insipid, vampiric demands fans place on an artist's energy, vision and life. Listen to McMurtry; go see him; he is a home-grown genius.

Have been a JM fan for about 3 years now,bought "live in Aught-three)first and loved it.I like this studio effort just as well, "sixty acres" is a real toe tapper. McMurty's ability to spin a tale of hardworking, rural, open space livelihoods is fantastic. I will be investigating more of his work and no doubt obtaining more.

The song "Jaws of Life" alone makes it worth picking up this album. Lyrics cut to the bone. Song structure and cadance make you wonder why he's not all over the radio. Thanks to DMX I've heard what otherwise might have been missed.

Really wonderful wordplay, lots of space between the words, but when they hit...

This is a great CD; other great McMurtry CDs are "Candyland" & "Too Long in the Wasteland."

McMurtry's follow-up to the 1995 "Where'd You Hide The Body" doesn't quite live up to it's predecessor. "Paris" and "No More Buffalo" are definately standout tracks, but the rest of the album is slow moving and the songs seem to have no destination. It basically winds up being an album of songs that run too long and it lacks those characters that McMurtry is so noted for creating in his first three releases.