James McMurtry/Heartless Bastards - Live In Aught-Three

Artist:

McMurtry, James

UPC:

804879283935

Description:

Full performer name: James McMurty & The Heartless Bastards.
James McMurty & The Heartless Bastards: James McMurtry (vocals, guitar); Ronnie Johnson (bass, background vocals); Darren Hess (drums).
Recorded live at The Zephyr, Salt Lake City, Utah; The Orange Peel, Asheville, North Carolina; and 12th & Porter, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003.
Personnel: Daren Hess (drums).
Audio Mixer: Stuart Sullivan.
Recording information: 12th And Porter, Nashville, TN (05/16/2003/05/17/2003); John Barleycorn`s, Wichita, KS (05/16/2003/05/17/2003); The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC (05/16/2003/05/17/2003); The Zephyr Club, Salt Lake City, UT (05/16/2003/05/17/2003); 12th And Porter, Nashville, TN (06/26/2003); John Barleycorn`s, Wichita, KS (06/26/2003); The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC (06/26/2003); The Zephyr Club, Salt Lake City, UT (06/26/2003); 12th And Porter, Nashville, TN (06/27/2003); John Barleycorn`s, Wichita, KS (06/27/2003); The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC (06/27/2003); The Zephyr Club, Salt Lake City, UT (06/27/2003); 12th And Porter, Nashville, TN (11/15/2003); John Barleycorn`s, Wichita, KS (11/15/2003); The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC (11/15/2003); The Zephyr Club, Salt Lake City, UT (11/15/2003).
Photographer: Alan Pogue.
James McMurtry`s written plenty of great songs, but he`s never made a great album. His character sketches and stories have always rung true, and he`s as perceptive a chronicler of the disaffected and alienated as you`ll find, but his limited vocal range and sometimes almost-indifferent delivery have made even his best discs, Too Long in the Wasteland and Where`d You Hide the Body a struggle to get through. Live in Aught-Three isn`t a great album, but the live setting lets McMurtry and his backing group, the Heartless Bastards, breathe real rock & roll life into many of these songs for the first time. "Levelland," an account of stasis in the fly-over land, aches with a longing for something, anything, that`s more exciting than high-school football games and farms, and "Red Dress" burns with an angry intensity that you`d never have guessed McMurtry had in him. We also get a dose of McMurtry`s deadpan humor on a few between-song asides ("I used to think I was an artist. Come to find out I`m a beer salesman") and a hilarious delineation between intellectuals and good ol` boys. In fact, the strongest material here -- and McMurtry`s best work overall -- are the ones in which he finds both the humor and the pathos in quirky, nasty characters like the ticked-off heir to the worthless farmland of "60 Acres," or the twisted crew at a family reunion in "Choctaw Bingo." If McMurtry`s albums haven`t caught your attention before, Live in Aught-Three is a perfect opportunity to reassess him. ~ Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen

Track Listing:

DISC 1

1. Saint Mary of the Woods
2. Fraulein O.
3. Red Dress
4. No More Buffalo
5. 60 Acres
6. Rachel`s Song
7. Out Here in then Middle
8. Choctaw Bingo
9. Lights of Cheyenne
10. Levelland
11. Max`s Theorem
12. I`m Not From Here
13. Too Long in the Wasteland
14. Rex`s Blues

Album Information

Release Date:

02/01/2011

Type:

Performer

Genre:

Rock & Pop

Subgenre:

Country Rock

Label:

Lightning Rod Records

Producer:

James McMurtry

Catalog Number:

LRR 28393

Original Release Year:

2004

# of Discs:

1

Studio/Live:

Live

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

Runtime:

77 : 50

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