You may have missed this - James McMurtry - The Horses and the Hounds

Way back in 2014 I wrote a blog about how much I liked James McMurtry's debut album Too Long in the Wasteland.   

More than 30 years after releasing that fine album in 2021 I think he released his finest work to date with The Horses and the Hounds.  While I enjoyed it immedirately it has steadily grown on me, the depth of the songwriting becoming clearer with every play.  

It was the opening song Canola Fields that drew me into repeated listening.  The best song I have heard about rekindling youthful love.  You can always expect some evocative phrases and this was the one that got me 

In a way back corner of a cross-town bus

We were hiding out under my hat

Cashing in on a thirty-year crush

You can't be young and do that

One song later, after the romanticsm of that track there is the pointed critique of Operation Never Mind how the US engages in war (or operations) these days.  With the profiteering and eliticsm of the KBR Man versus the poor country boy doing the fighting.

The country boys will do the fighting

Now that fighting's all a country boy can do

But all the time being very aware to avoid the public getting too het up about it. 

We got a handle on it this time

No one's gonna tell us we were wrong

We won't let the cameras near the fighting

That way we won't have another Vietnam

No one knows, 'cause no one sees

No one cares, 'cause no one knows

No one knows, 'cause no one sees it on TV

Later we have the funkiness of Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call built around relationship issues and how losing your glasses can make a whole day turn to shit.  

She's camped in the shower and she won't come out

And I don't have a clue what that's about

I'll just have to wait and see

Can't get online to check the bank

Twitter's on fire, my stocks all tanked

But what's really getting to me is

I keep losing my glasses

After more trials and tribulations the day ends as it started 

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 it

I keep losing my glasses (glasses)

Those are some of my highlights but as I am playing the record now - I could have picked three of four others