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Even if you don't agree with his politics(which are a very snall part of the cd) it's a selection everyone should enjoy. Check it out, you'll be glad you did. I've been listening to James McMurtry for decades and he has never disappointed, and "Just Us Kids" may be his best ever. He has a truly refined pure talent as a writer that makes you want to dance one minute and cry the next.
I thought so much of the first one I knew it would be a hard act to follow. He talks a lot on this one instead of singing, but he pulls it off because the messages are so beautifully rendered. I was a little hesitant about this cd. But follow he did.
We are fans of James McMurtry and feel this is one of his best. Topical lyrics, great backing band, biting commentary, and all-out rockin.Would highly recommend.
It describes in the first person, the horrors and consequenses of the crime of incest. Fireline Road is the best track on the disc. The more you listen to this album you may begin to feel that this is "album of the year" material. This is James McMurtry at his all time best. Son of famous novelist Larry McMurtry demonstrates the genetic gifts of his dad. Chaney's Toy and God Bless America are war protest songs of the new milenium.
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. 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 realmA 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. 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. 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'). Too Long in the Wasteland, indeed. 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. The music itself recalls mentor John Mellencamp's more socially pointed rock or the rabblerousing of Steve Earle.
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