As some may have surmised, several musical styles grab my attention. These include the mantra-esque style (Country Home - Neil Young, Week 2), Guitar music (yet to be featured!), the storytelling song (Sam Stone - John Prine, Week 4 or Corpus Christi Bay - Phosphorescent, Week 10, for example) and musical virtuosity (again yet to feature).
For this week, I have decided to return to the Storytelling genre, and my choice comes from James McMurtry's 2005 album Childish Things. The album was awarded the 2006 American Music Association Album of the Year, and this song was named the best song of the 2000s decade by music critic Robert Christgau!
James McMurtry, a Texan from Fort Worth, is the son of novelist Larry McMurtry, who gave his son his first guitar at seven, although his English Professor mother taught him his first cords!
The song is 'wordy'; however, in the true songsmith style, there isn't a wasted word in the song, in my opinion, and I urge you to listen intently to all James has to say. The song is a valid indictment of our current predicament and echoes Bob Dylan's 1983 song Union Sundown from his Infidels album.
So here is James McMurtry's We Can't Make It Here (Anymore):