Tim Brough 2008-10-13
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Too Long in the Wasteland, indeed. James McMurtry's scathing collection of character sketches blisters as an indictment of the last eight years, commenting on greed ("God Bless America"), the downtrodden and left behind ("Fireline Road) and the chimp in chief himself ("Cheney's Toy'). It's likely the most political album you'll hear this year outside of punk rock (New Wave, The Bright Lights of America), and digs deeply into McMurtry's Lou Reed by way of Texas singing style.
As usually for McMurtry, the lyrics are hyper-literate. Take this example from the down-on-his-luck man waiting out the storm in "Hurricane Party":
Now there's water up past the wheel wells of my
Ford and I don't guess that it'll run.
But I left a pack of Winston's on the dash,
could you fetch 'em for me son?
The morning's first cigarette,
that's as good as it gets all day, I should know by now.
But there's no one to talk to when the lines go down.
But like his scathing attack on the economics of trickle down "We Can't Make it Here Anymore" on Childish Things, he saves his most withering jabs for the political songs.
We'll fight 'em in the land, we'll fight 'em in the air,
well a cowboy says we got to fight 'em over there.
He ain't seen nothing like it since Saigon fell.
Dancin' in the ruins 'cause we might as well.
Dancin' in the ruins of the realm
A fool and a mad man at the helm.
That's from "Ruins of the Realm," which doesn't address anyone by name the way "Cheney's Toy" or "God Bless America" does, but they're potent all the same. The music itself recalls mentor John Mellencamp's more socially pointed rock or the rabblerousing of Steve Earle. The less political of the songs, "Bayou Tortoise" and the title song offer topical looks at life and kick up some dust. McMurtry is in a position in folk music that has few peers, and "Just Us Kids," like so many of his other albums, offers heartland folk-rock with a fierce take on life.
