JAMES McMURTRY / Best of the Sugar Hill Years
(Sugar Hill)

©Michael Koster, November 2007

Best of the Sugar Hill Years closes with "Choctaw Bingo," a hilarious, scathing eight-and-a-half-minute indictment of redneck culture set to an uptempo, catchy guitar-piano riff that is nearly impossible not to tap your toes to. Mail order brides, gun nuts, crystal meth makers, incestuous cousins, fast food, and small-town sports all get the tragicomic McMurtry treatment in what's become his signature tune. Epic songwriting and expansive guitar playing doesn't get much better than this. Yet McMurtry is easily the most underrated Texas songwriter-guitarist on the circuit today. Unfortunately, Sugar Hill's new Best Of disc isn't going to right that wrong. Sure, there are gems like "Choctaw Bingo," "Lobo Town" (another angry, witty and deeply melodic critique that peels back the beaten skin of rural American culture to reveal its ugly yet amusing core), and the demure "12 O'Clock Whistle" which features McMurtry's quiet, tasteful acoustic side. But Best Of draws from only three of McMurtry's many releases, two of which are mediocre albums. The third, Saint Mary of the Woods, from which five songs are here included, is a hands-down classic in itself. My advice is to skip Best Of and go straight to Saint Mary, where you'll get a far bigger bang for the buck.