My Top Twenty-One of 2021: #1

1. James McMurtry - The Horses and the Hounds

My favourite album of 2021 comes from the son of novelist Larry McMurtry, the man who penned The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and even the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. Although James went in a different direction creatively than his pop, he's obviously picked up much from his old man. The Horses and the Hounds reads like a collection of expertly crafted short stories, packed with the best kind of lyrical detail, showing not telling, and leaving the listener to fill in the gaps.

I heard you switched coasts, moved in with your sister

I doubt you'd have called it familial bliss

We met up in Brooklyn before it went hipster

You carried your keys in your fist

There's more going on in the above lines (from album opener Canola Fields) than most songwriters manage in a whole song. Subtle characterisation, wit, threat, social commentary, imagery... this guy is a master. 

As with the Felice Brothers, James McMurtry is an artist who has existed on the periphery of my vision until now. I've got a couple of his records in my collection, but I obviously haven't devoted enough time to them to pick up the finer details of his craft. He's been in the game since the late 80s (Ricky Ross recently commented that a young McMurtry supported Deacon Blue on their first US tour), but he's clearly a fine wine... ever improving with age. (McMurtry would have made that metaphor work better, without the clunky explanation, but I'm nowhere near the writer he is.) He's also settled into the grumpy old man role well, with songs like Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call (that's the one with the "I keep losing my glasses" hook, as featured here earlier) and What's The Matter, Now? which feels like an uncomfortably autobiographical phone conversation between McMurtry and his long-suffering wife, but could well just be fiction. Both are very funny tunes, improved further by his rapper-worthy rhyming skills.  

Made the exit and turned up Ponce

And I’ll be damned if I know what she wants

But we gotta get something to eat

Majestic Diner’s our best chance

Pork chop and eggs oughta save the romance

It’s maybe a mile up the street

My daddy told me, if you got any sense

Better feed the woman... many years hence,

I know what he meant and I got me a plan

But I can’t read the menu ‘cause damn 

I keep losing my glasses . . .

The song I've chosen today is a much more serious affair though - devastatingly so. There's menace, foreboding and genuine tragedy in this tune. No wonder Stephen King calls McMurtry, "the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation."

He was more than just a decent man

Best friend I ever had

When you’re shooting at a coffee can

A thirty eight don’t kick that bad