(Americana, Country, Country-rock) James McMurtry - Candyland - 1992, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007
EAC extraction logfile from 20. February 2008, 16:04
James McMurtry / Candyland
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        2  |  4:45.17 |  4:45.73 |     21392    |    42839
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        9  | 34:56.42 |  3:45.50 |    157242    |   174166
       10  | 38:42.17 |  3:44.30 |    174167    |   190996
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McMurtry is not only novelist Larry McMurtry's boy, he's pals with John Mellencamp.
As it happens, both play a role in McMurtry's second record.
Not surprisingly, James can write -- though (as with other challenging vocalists like, say, Dylan or Tom Waits) he's perhaps an acquired taste. McMurtry's singer-songwriter style can sometimes come off as flat, like the Delta or a piece of Texas desert, yet similarly it's by no means featureless.
His easy, prairie-long gaze is as sharp as it is specific, however, both here and on his debut, 1989's terrific (but perhaps less musically developed) "Too Long in the Wasteland."
That same year, Mellencamp (who was involved with both recording sessions) released "Big Daddy," where he explored twang-and-roll as well as themes far removed from whether Jack was still dating Diane. Where it initially felt like a left turn when Mellencamp (nee Cougar) spruced up his stuff with Lisa Germano's fiddle, by the time of "Candyland," he was completely inhabiting this new phase -- and in a great position to help introduce newer voices in the genre like McMurtry.
Thing is, McMurtry immediately makes this sound his own, collaborating from the beginning like hand in glove -- or, I guess, more precisely: foot in boot. He writes in a way that Mellencamp still occasionally aspires to, speaking plainly and directly about simple concerns.
Former Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff and sometime guitar collaborator David Grissom also show up, and give weight to these acoustic-based musings. Aronoff is a one-whomp metronome, something that eventually led to his ouster from John's band, but Grissom is reliably revelatory.
Around a loping riff on "Safe Side," for instance, McMurtry ruminates on the haves and the have nots: "Down in Piedras Negras you gotta watch yourself/ There's a whole lotta hungry people lookin to share some wealth/ And when the oilfield's busted and the peso takes a dive/ Stay off the side streets if you wanna come back alive."
"The Good Life," as you might imagine, is about every-day pleasures, and the way lives slowly build into a legacy. Later, on "Dusty Pages," McMurtry looks back on that life, trying to hold on to treasured memories.
This is a quietly intriguing album, with insights that drift up to the surface. McMurtry, we know now, had only just begun making steel-toe tapping records that take a while to sink in. ~ NICK DERISO
Like Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler (but with less mumble), James McMurtry offers a deep, personable (if plain) voice and delivery, equally suited to both country and rock. The instrumental backing veers between and blurs the two forms, the fluid dynamics rendering the distinction irrelevant. Whatever you call it, the music serves up a perfect backdrop to McMurtry's strong suit -- his evocative, short-story lyrics. Eventually, rock appears to win out as guitars veer into overdrive on "Save Yourself" and "Storekeeper"; the disc finally closing with the wistful, acoustic "Dusty Pages." ~ Roch Parisien, All Music Guide
If Lou Reed hadn't already copped the title, James McMurtry could have called his second album Magic and Loss. The magic is in his lyrics. McMurtry seems to have inherited a hawk's eye for detail from his dad, novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry. In "Storekeeper," the vanity of the greedy rich reflects as clearly in the shine on a shop owner's shoes as in the derision he aims at his impoverished customers – barefoot people expected to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. In the title track, he pierces the false security and smugness of suburbia with a flash of spiked fences hemming manicured lawns.
And the loss? Nearly everyone who populates McMurtry's Candyland is searching for direction, from the fading old man in "Hands Like Rain," who looks to the sky for soothing redemption, to the high-school hero of "Where's Johnny," whose promise crumbles beneath the weight of the world.
John Mellencamp produced McMurtry's first album, Too Long in the Wasteland (1989), and Candyland finds McMurtry still working in Mellencamp's camp. The album was cut at Mellencamp's Belmont Mall Studios, with Mellencamp band guitarist Michael Wanchic producing most tracks, and drummer Kenny Aronoff, guitarist Dave Grissom and other Indiana stalwarts provide the same fat-snare, big-guitar sound that defines their boss's heartland rock.
With his dusty voice and limited range, McMurtry needs to vary his laconic delivery to ensure that his singing doesn't fade to gray after a half-dozen songs. And ultimately, he will need to wriggle out from under Mellencamp's shadow to find a sound as distinctive as his songwriting. ~ TED DROZDOWSKI Rolling Stone