by Paul T. Mueller
“Honey don’t you be yelling at me when I’m cleaning my gun.” Is there a better opening line for a song or an album anywhere? Could there be? Hard to imagine. A dozen words into “Copper Canteen,” the first song on Complicated Game, James McMurtry’s ninth studio CD, and you know you want to know more about these people. That’s one of McMurtry’s great strengths – sharp, clean writing that sketches characters and their lives with only a few well-chosen words.
Another of McMurtry’s gifts is his almost uncanny ability to embody a wide range of personas in songs. Most of Complicated Game’s songs are written in the first person; the protagonists include a husband dealing with the frustrations and pleasures of a long-term relationship (“Copper Canteen”); a man reminiscing about his younger self and a long-ago love (“You Got to Me”), a rootless wanderer (“Ain’t Got a Place”), a man planning his own disappearance (“Forgotten Coast”), a returning veteran who finds that things back home are not what he’d hoped for (“South Dakota”), and – in what McMurtry described recently as “the deepest and darkest song I ever wrote” – a person of unspecified gender who deals with emotional pain through self-injury (“Cutter”). These are people you might pass on the street any day without knowing anything about them, but McMurtry’s skill as a lyricist brings them vividly to life.
The overall sound of Complicated Game is closer to that of older, quieter albums, such as It Had to Happen and Walk Between the Raindrops, than to the louder, angrier tone of McMurtry’s more recent work. There’s plenty of fine guitar playing, but this time out it’s mostly acoustic. Much of the backing is by longtime touring bandmates Cornbread (bass), Daren Hess (drums) and Tim Holt (guitar and vocals). The impressive list of contributors includes McMurtry’s son Curtis on banjo and vocals, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Dustin Welch and Danny Barnes on banjo, Derek Trucks on slide guitar, and many others.
McMurtry’s vocals have more animation here than on his past few albums; he’s been quoted as crediting co-producer CC Adcock with expanding his range. (Mike Napolitano is also credited with production. He and Adcock did a fine job; there’s a lot going on musically, but it all serves the songs without overshadowing them.)
James McMurtry has been an excellent musician and storyteller since he launched his career more than a quarter century ago, and he shows no sign of letting up now. Complicated Game is one of his best, and one of the best albums of 2015 so far.