songs:illinois

I wanted to love the new song from James McMurtry’s new record Just Us Kids. I was waiting to hear his trademark fuzzy guitar chords, the irreverence and anger he’s shown in past political forays, and the emotion he can wring out of just a handful of words. But with “Cheney’s Toy” I just don’t hear it, or I hear it, but it just doesn’t reverberate for me. With George Bush’s stature falling by the minute, the war clearly a major mistake, the continued resurgence of the Democratic party and hopefully Barak Obama’s ascendence to the White House, this type of rancor just doesn’t register with me anymore.

Writing a song about Cheney is like beating up on the New England Patriots. They had their day, they blew it and now they’re over. This guy’s the same; he’s done, he’s toast, game over. He’s a recluse on a power trip who’s just about to loose any vestiges of that power that still remains. Which, come next year, makes him just a tired old recluse. He’s the lame duck vice-president of a lame duck president with no influence in the White House and facing outright hostility from both parties in congress.

So although I may be wrong, to me I just feel this song sounds forced. I guess I’d rather hear something uplifting at this point and not more of the same. Although you won’t catch me dead saying the c-word (CHANGE!). You can stream samples of the whole record over at Lightning Rod Records website. From what I can hear the new record may have more going for it than this one song.

Cheney’s Toy

PS My other site, Swedesplease, was named one of the best places to get free and legal music by the Courier Mail in Australia. Here’s the link to see the other 19.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 8:52 am and is filed under Americana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.