When George W. Bush moved back to Crawford, Texas, the locals organized a Welcome Home Bash for the ex-president featuring a Lone Star band that included drummer Josh Garner. During Secret Service background checks, Garner was asked, "What is your affiliation with James McMurtry?" It happened that Garner had played with McMurtry, the Austin-based rocker whom author Stephen King calls "the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation" and whose searing songs blistered Bush and Bushism. McMurtry took the news in stride, celebrating the fact that he was "on the radar" and releasing a brilliant live album and a DVD featuring the sharpest of his Bush-battering tunes, "We Can't Make It Here."
wow ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
As some of you know, McMurtry is the son of Oscar winnning novelist/screenwriter Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Brokeback Mountain, etc.). James is an authentic product of the Austintacious (Austin TX) singer songwriter scene, where some of my oldest friends got their shit together. It was an honor to be nearly drunk under the table with him.
His band also included the keyboardist from Small Faces (whose name i will remember tomorrow) (Ian McLagen, hah, only took me 11 seconds) who didn't drink as much as us. When i woke up the next (afternoon) i realized i had seen one of the true descendants of Woody Guthrie, and was thankful to be able to spend personal time with him, sharing stories of Austin, and the horror that amurka has become.
You can find youtubes of him from that tour in Yurp, and there is now a live album. I'm not embarrassed to say i was honored to be nearly drunk under the table... but i only had to go around the corner to get home... and he had weeks of touring before him. What a treasure. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
