Be My Valentine James McMurtry

It's crazy music week around here-4 shows in 7 days. We still have Richard Thompson, Solomon Burke and The Bottle Rockets to look forward to but we kicked it off on Monday with James McMurtry. I had never seen him live before and was very excited. After a trying day (work at 6am, rush to the hospital to make my checkup, hurry to the other side of town through rush hour and construction) it was a relief to make it to the Magic Bag, second in line and sure to get a seat. Of course I would have stood but due to age and circumstance, I find myself very concerned with seating at shows these days. Working 10 hours retail on your feet then facing still more standing (usually on unforgiving concrete) makes me consider my choices carefully which sometimes ends with, "Yeah, it'd be fun to see them but..".

Anyway the show was great which would not surprise anyone who has heard his "Live in Aught Three" record which is one of the liveliest, most clearly recorded live CDs around. (It also functions as an excellent introduction to the man.) The place was full (though the crowd skewed kind of old, I think we were among the youngest present) and yes, there were Canadians. They were apparently long time fans who got a special thanks for bringing him some cool fishing stuff. The crowd was into the show even if we weren't dancing as much as James would have liked. One of his funniest lines of the night was , "Where I come from if people aren't moving it means you suck. Hope I don't suck." (This also turned into another funny one during the crowd favorite "Choctaw Bingo" where he said, "We're getting to the good part and I have always found the good part is even better when everybody is moving around." Considering the "money" lines of that song concern an encounter between 3 second cousins at a family reunion and a large, very hard erection it was pretty damn funny.) But the more obvious charms of "Choctaw Bingo" (and the splendidly angry "We Can't Make It Here Anymore") were far outweighed by the quieter moments that struck me hard.

I mean hard.

Still thinking about it days later hard.

The a cappella part of "Holiday" when even the Canadians were quiet. The stunning stillness in "Charlemagne's Home Town" especially in the lines, "the color snap shots I sent you/all came out in black and white". And the lovely, lonely wistfulness of my favorite, the one I most wanted to hear, "Lights of Cheyenne". You don't often get that kind of beauty in a rock and roll show. Not by a long shot.

So today I am nominating James McMurtry as the Recording Artist I Most Want To Be My Valentine. Why? Because of his heart of course. Cause when things would be sweet so would they, in profusion, and when things weren't, as frequently happens in his songs and in my life, the Valentines would keep coming. Valentines of a rarer, bittersweet kind, full of a different longing. But he wouldn't forget me. Now I don't know the man and there can be danger in presumption but I know a torch carrier when I see one from being one myself and we are the best kind of Valentines.