The CD Odyssey is prone to wild style swings. My last review was heavy metal and now we return to country/folk.
Disc 1414 is…. It Had To Happen
Artist: James McMurtry
Year of Release: 1997
What’s up with the Cover? A man, his guitar, and an unattractive, ill-fitting hat. We must assume he insisted on wearing it even after the photographer pleaded with him to take it off. But no, James insisted it was a bad hair day and the hat was necessary, not realizing that it was 1997 and every day back then was a bad hair day. Bad hair was just the style of the time.
How I Came To Know It: I read a review of the album “Just Us Kids” on a list of best indie folk albums, and that led me to McMurtry. From there I just started digging, as I’m wont to do.
How It Stacks Up: McMurtry has nine studio albums, but I’m only partial to six of them. Of those six, I put “It Had To Happen” in at #5. I already had “Childish Games” in at #5, but I’ve bumped it up one. Sometimes you gotta course correct.
Ratings: 3 stars
McMurtry records always have two things going for them: the tone of his guitar and a natural gift for storytelling. “It Had to Happen” isn’t his best record, but these two things hold it up and make it worth some of your time.
The guitar in particular is beautiful here. He doesn’t do a bunch of Eddie Van Halen style digital acrobatics, but McMurtry’s guitar has a “voice” that is rich and full. When he strums, the strum gets down into your soul and when he does a little riff it is free and easy. Each note or chord hangs just a little in the air, still fading as the next one comes in, lush and thick.
McMurtry’s playing is never in a hurry, which given his penchant for six- and seven-minute epics is just as well. With lesser playing, these songs could try your patience, but instead it is like a pleasant road trip, with miles and miles of highway and a journey that is just as relaxing as the destination. “Peter Pan” in particular just trills away like some kind of reimagined Eagles song. You can feel yourself in a convertible, refusing to grow up just like the song’s titular subject, hair free in the breeze. Sadly, the experience failed to blow that hat off McMurtry’s head.
The album is produced by Lloyd Maines and he does a fine job of just letting McMurtry’s gravelly voice meander through these songs, with lots of space to let that guitar shine even more.
McMurtry also tells a solid story. Although “It Had to Happen” isn’t as strong as some of the records that come after, there is still some good stuff in here. “Paris” is an exploration of how we all want to get noticed more than we are, and how that experience is amplified in a foreign city. It can be freeing to be anonymous, but it can also make you feel small.
The record has more than its fair share of quiet resignation. If you are in a mood to wallow at how life isn’t always the thrill-ride your youth imagined it would be, then McMurtry invites you to wallow away. Sometimes the images he employs are a bit strained (I wasn’t feeling “No More Buffalo” nor “Wild Man From Borneo” the way McMurtry wanted me to), but even those songs have an inoffensive mosey. I just wanted them to have a little more feeling and a little less clever, given their somber and introspective themes.
My favourite song is the record’s last, “Jaws of Life” a song that compares the wear and tear of life with that crazy contraption used to extricate people from car wrecks. Or as McMurtry leads us off:
“Questions in the eyes of the precious few
Like the want to say “man, what’s happened to you?”
I got aches and pains where I didn’t used to
I kinda hope they’ve got ‘em too.”
And then the chorus detailing just what happened:
“In the jaws of life I find myself
Chewed up like everyone else
Makes no difference what you thought
Or who you are. You still get caught
In the jaws of life.”
But for all that mangled experience, the song has a bounce that puts a spring in your step. As though McMurtry is reminding us that life takes a toll, but we’re all in it together. Pull yourself together and try to saunter a little, even through the rough parts.
Some artists make one great record right away and then fade away. Others get consistently better with age. James McMurtry is the latter, and on “It Had to Happen” he is still growing into his greatness. Even so, there are still plenty of good tracks here to recommend it. Despite the hat.
Best tracks: Paris, Peter Pan, Stancliff’s Lament, Jaws of Life
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