1. See The Elephant
2. Childish Things
3. We Can't Make It Here
4. Ole Slew Foot
5. Bad Enough
6. Restless
7. Memorial Day
8. Six-Year Drought
9. The Old Part Of Town
10. Charlemagne's Home Town
11. Pocatello
12. Holiday
Amazon.com
Within the song cycle of innocence and experience that is Childish Things, James McMurtry continues to explore musical territory between rock and a hard place. The social commentary of the relentlessly bleak "We Can't Make It Here" and "Six-Year Drought" is more pointed than ever, while the arrangements throughout are as taut, muscular and slap-in-the-face direct as the songs. While the opening "See the Elephant," the title cut, and "Memorial Day" evoke a younger person's sense of wonder, the mortal lessons have plainly taken their toll by the closing "Holiday." Along the way, highlights range from the accordion-laced yearning of "Charlemagne's Home Town" to the Chuck Berry-style, guitar-driven rock of "The Old Part of Town" to a stirring duet with Joe Ely on "Old Slew Foot." With his terse, cut-to-the-bone artistry, McMurtry never wastes a word or a note. --Don McLeese
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Childish Things
- Audio CD: 0 pages (2005-09-06)
- Publisher: Compadre Records
- Label: Compadre Records
- Studio: Compadre Records
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 38 reviews
- Sales Rank in Music: #4990
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Can't Put Away Childish Things 2008-08-03
Comment: James McMurtry sees things a little more askew than most of us. The final song on "Childish Things" comments on how little things seem to have changed.
Departing Chicago at 9:52
In clean desert camo all baggy and loose
Sits an Iowa Guardsman alone by the gate
The place sure looked different, in 1968
When he traveled with mom, first time on a plane
To visit some kin, he's forgotten their names
But he remembers the soldiers, still in their teens
In their spit polished boots and their pressed army greens
With the creases so sharp, and their faces so smooth
But their eyes looked so heavy, he wondered how they could move
Now he's got that same look, like his insides are black
He's in his mid forties and he has to go back
And he can't even smoke while he waits for his plane
The uniform's different, but the mission remains.
Yes, McMurtry's one P.O.'d songwriter, and this album lets it fly from both barrels. For those who wonder why there aren't any good protest songs coming from the train-wreck that is W's War for Oil, "Childish Things" offers a pair of stunners. Both "Holiday" and "We Can't Make it Here Anymore" are like Ice Water to the face. There are plenty of aware songwriters out there, but your local right-wing clear channel owned outlet would rather you hear Miley Cyrus or a 30 year old Eagles song then something that would make you think.
Which is what McMurtry has been doing since he released the John Mellencamp produced Too Long in the Wasteland in the 90's. What has happened in the interim is that he's long since been off the major labels and has sharpened his voice. Songs like "Bad Enough" (a great rocker about a collapsing relationship) offer a keen observer's eye, as does the dryly funny "Memorial Day." But nowhere else on the record do the observations cut as cleanly as "We Can't Make it Here Anymore."
The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day
Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore.
There are few better at this than McMurtry. "Childish Things" is an amazing piece of agit-Americana on a par with Steve Earle's Washington Square Serenade (DIG).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite CD's 2007-08-24
Comment: This one spends most of it's time in my car. Great road music and very entertaining. James's music always amazes me in the way he can dig down and grab stories as if he's living them at the time he writes them.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
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Summary: McMurtry's mad as hell ... 2007-08-22
Comment: I heard an interview with James McMurty on National Public Radio one day while driving home from Louisiana. In the time it took to get from Marshall to New Diana, I fell completely under the spell of McMurty's hard-driving music and tough-as-nails lyrics.
McMurtry reminds me of a young Bob Dylan, singing about difficult personal relationships, society's ills and the horros of war.
"Bad Enough" tells of war on the home front.
Where have you been?
I don't want to know.
Probably some place
I wouldn't want to go.
Who were you with?
Who did you see?
What did you talk about?
What did you say about me?
Where have you been?
I won't let it drop?
What were you thinking?
When you gonna stop?
In the traditional "Slew Foot," McMurtry sings of a wild bear, but about half-way through, you realize he isn't singing about Gentle Ben at all.
He's big around the middle
He's broad around the rump.
Making 90 miles an hour,
Taking 30 feet of jump.
He ain't never been caught.
He ain't never been treed.
Some folks say he looks a lot like me.
The hardest-hitting song from "Childish Things" is "We Can't Make It Here Anymore," an anthem to tough times and war veterans.
There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
A flag on the wheelchair, flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free.
No one's paying much mind to him.
The V.A. budget's just stretched so thin,
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war.
We can't make it here anymore.
That big old building was a textile mill.
It fed our children and it paid our bills.
But, they turned us out and they closed the door.
We can't make it here anymore.
. . .
Some have maxed out all their credit cards.
Some are working two jobs and living in cars.
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof.
Won't pay for a drink, if you gotta have proof
Just try it yourself, Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour will go.
Take a part-time job in one of your stores.
I'll bet you can't make it here anymore.
You might not agree with his message, but there is no denying McMurtry's mighty talent. Perhaps he inherited his storytelling skills from his famous father, author Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove"). This apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
In a world full of pablum-infused musical mush, it's refreshing to know someone is out there writing songs that make us take a long, hard look at our world and ourselves.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of those you can't get out of your mind 2007-07-21
Comment: I love this CD by McMurtry. I'm not knowledgable enough to write a long review, only to say I am mesmerized by him and have ordered several of his other works since enjoying this one so much.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece - quite impressive 2007-06-04
Comment: This is a masterwork. James McMurtry, with Childish Things, has created an album that won the Esky award for 2006 (an award for music that goes beyond the expected) and he beat out Neil Young last September when Childish Things and "We Can't Make It Here" won the Americana Music Awards for album and song of the year, respectively. That win put Neil's Living With War and Let's Impeach the President into second place!
Neil is my favorite popular artist - but James' album is truly as fine an album as one could want. See the Elephant, Childish Things and We Can't Make it Here Anymore are outstanding and everything else is excellent. A fine addition to any serious music lover's collection.
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Childish Things
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