Childish Things

James McMurtry

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 6, 2005)
• Original Release Date: September 6, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Compadre Records
• ASIN: B000AMJDOC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,144 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Destined For Glory, September 28, 2005

By	Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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I've been a fan of James McMurtry ever since I saw him play the Leon Springs Cafe when he was touring his first album many years ago. While he has never attracted the critical acclaim and national commercial success he deserves, McMurtry has been hard at work all these years honing his craft and building a grassroots fan base that continues to expand as word gets around that he is no pretender. With the issue of Childish Things, McMurtry should at long last be destined for glory.
Like Robert Earl Keen Jr, Dave Alvin, and Ray Wylie Hubbard, McMurtry is a master story teller. He covers all sorts of topics, mostly telling stories about ordinary people and their struggles. But he is at his best when he is in a mood of righteous indignation. Whatever side of the globalization debate you are on, you have to agree that We Can't Make it Here is about as hard-hitting as it can get! It graphically expresses the inchoate rage of millions trapped between the old economy and the new. It's a rather timeless theme, though the circumstances be ever-changing. But McMurtry really nails it and makes you think about what he is saying.
We Can't Make It Here is the standout, but there are lots of other good songs here. See the Elephant is kind of a fun song, Memorial Day details the anticipation and excitement of a family holiday gathering, Six-Year Drought speaks to the despair of those affected by it, while Holiday is a bleak and disaffected view of the loneliness often felt by those who have to work during the holidays. There are some great rockers as well, The Old Part Of Town and Pocatello stand out in that regard.
If you are an old fan of James McMurtry, then you will find Childish Things to be one of his best. If you are new to his music, then this is as good a CD as any to start yourself down the road to becoming a devoted fan. Enjoy!

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stark and Incisive, January 21, 2006

By	Kevin L. Nenstiel "omnivore" (Kearney, Nebraska) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

James McMurtry is angry. Not the loud and raucous gloom of mainstream rockers like Green Day, or the camera-friendly pessimism of country stars like Tim McGraw; no, James McMurtry is angry at very specific diseases in out time and society. And he's telling everybody exactly how angry he is and why.

On most of McMurtry's recordings, the sound is spare to make room for his weighty lyrics. Like a Texas-fried Bob Dylan, McMurtry has something to say, and he wants you to hear it clearly. This album is as stark as the Bible and as incisive as a double-edged saber. The language is not pretty (he twice encourages someone to eat feces, though the word he uses is much more forthright than "feces") and his message is not dolled up in pithy turns of phrase. But all this about the plainspoken nature of the lyrics doesn't deny the fact that, as a songwriter, McMurtry is smart and witty. References on this CD include the Buddha, Marcel Proust, Charlemagne, and others. McMurtry may be earthy, but he is literate, and he expects you to be as well.

Ten of the twelve songs on this disc were written by the artist himself. He also covers "Old Slew Foot," a classic old bear-hunting beater, joined on the vocals by Flatlander Joe Ely; and Peter Case's "Old Part of Town," about how you sometimes have to go backward to go forward. And that about sums up the theme of the album. McMurtry believes we as a society took the wrong fork in the road and, if we want to survive, we need to reverse ourselves and get straightened out. Or, as he puts it on the epic-length third track, "We Can't Make It Here Anymore."

Some people will be bugged by the message-heavy nature of this disc. And some people won't like the stripped-down, driving sound of the music itself. Those people are probably provincial and don't know a good album when they land on it. Widely acknowledged by many critics as one of the top albums of 2005, this album proves McMurtry has the promise to join Richie Havens and Bob Dylan in the ranks of one of the great truth-tellers of all time.

Eminently listenable and thought-provoking, this is an album for everyone who sees where the truth lies, or wants to see it, both in life and in music.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the Southwestern Boss, March 5, 2006

By	Willowcat (New England) - See all my reviews

James McMurtry comes through again with a musical snapshot of the southwest. While the tone and style of the music itself may be somewhat predictable, (although pleasently so), his lyrics are worthy of print. McMurtry manages to distill issues into distinct stories, sometimes amusing, ("Slew Foot"), sometimes heartbreakingly poignant, ("Holiday"). Listening to this CD is like looking through a scrapbook of the lives of people who work for a living, who struggle to make it in a hard part of the country and who manage to maintain hope and grace while doing so.

McMurtry is one artist who consistently makes first class music. No bad tracks, no mistakes, and no disapointments. I highly recommend this CD to any fans, as well as to anyone who appreciates smart, literate, and on point artists.