Too Long in the Wasteland

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Too Long in the Wasteland
Studio album by
James McMurtry
Released1989
GenreRock, country, folk
LabelColumbia[1]
ProducerJohn Mellencamp
James McMurtry chronology
Too Long in the Wasteland
(1989) 		Candyland
(1992)

Too Long in the Wasteland is the debut album by the American musician James McMurtry, released in 1989.[2][3] Its first single was "Painted by Numbers".[4] The album's title was inspired in part by his father's Texas ranch, which is named the Wasteland.[5]

The album peaked at No. 125 on the Billboard 200.[6] McMurtry supported the album by playing some concert dates with Kinky Friedman, and touring with Nanci Griffith.[4][7]

Production[edit]

The album was produced by John Mellencamp (with Michael Wanchic and Larry Crane), who reconnected with McMurtry during the development of Falling from Grace; the film was written by McMurtry's father, Larry McMurtry, who passed along his son's demo tape.[8][9][10] The songs were written in Archer City, Texas, and at Mellencamp's studio in Indiana.[11] McMurtry was backed by members of Mellencamp's band, as well as by David Grissom.[12][13]

The songs are not autobiographical. Many were written to rebut the tendency of popular country music to sentimentalize rural and small-town life.[14]

Critical reception[edit]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[15]
Austin American-Statesman[13]
Robert ChristgauB+[16]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[17]

The Chicago Reader wrote that "McMurtry mainly acts as a dispassionate observer, content to sketch the outlines of a situation and leave its meaning, or his opinion of it, largely up to the listener to infer."[18] Robert Christgau thought that, "like so many singer-songwriters and so many local-colorists, he tends to a soft fatalism, especially when he tries a big statement."[16] Texas Monthly likened McMurtry's "droll" singing to Mark Knopfler's.[19] The Edmonton Journal described the album as "Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska in technicolor."[20]

The New York Times called the album "a collection of 11 dour songs that portray the spiritually desolate lives of people living in America's heartland."[21] Trouser Press concluded that "McMurtry’s lyrics read as riveting poetry, but they’re that much more powerful when heard in the company of a modest hook and a heartland backbeat."[12] The Globe and Mail stated that McMurtry "writes with mordant humor about tiny places in a vast land where suspicion, prejudice and vague threats linger behind the Main Street facades, where choices made in haste are mulled over years later."[22] The Washington Post considered that, "while his singing often takes on the dry, colorless, detached tone of the narrator, his songs are full of sharply drawn tales and three-dimensional characters."[23]

AllMusic noted that McMurtry "has a smooth, low voice that carries a Western twang from his life in Texas."[15] Salon deemed the album full of "catchy and harsh country-folk songs filled with tortured Southern souls failing at love, failing at life or just talking about it in front of the gas station on a country road."[24] The Rolling Stone Album Guide labeled "Terry" "a great, unsentimental lament for a mixed-up rehab bad boy."[17]

Track listing[edit]

No.TitleLength
1."Painting by Numbers" 
2."Terry" 
3."Shining Eyes" 
4."Outskirts" 
5."Song for a Deckhand's Daughter" 
6."I'm Not from Here" 
7."Too Long in the Wasteland" 
8."Crazy Wind" 
9."Poor Lost Soul" 
10."Angeline" 
11."Talkin' at the Texaco" 

References[edit]

  1. ^ Clifford, Craig E.; Hillis, Craig (October 1, 2016). Pickers and Poets: The Ruthlessly Poetic Singer-Songwriters of Texas. Texas A&M University Press.
  2. ^ "James McMurtry Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic.
  3. ^ Slatta, Richard W. (December 13, 2001). The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture. ABC-CLIO.
  4. ^ a b Harrington, Richard (27 Aug 1989). "The Roots of McMurtry: The Novelist's Son, Writing Mini-Novel in Song". The Washington Post. p. G1.
  5. ^ Morse, Steve (21 Sep 1989). "Path Paved on Rural Country Blues". Arts and Film. The Boston Globe. p. 59.
  6. ^ "James McMurtry". Billboard.
  7. ^ Hochman, Steve (27 Sep 1989). "Rocking Beyond the Family Ties: This McMurtry Writes Songs, Not Novels". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 1.
  8. ^ a b MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 739.
  9. ^ Masciotra, David (April 14, 2015). Mellencamp: American Troubadour. University Press of Kentucky.
  10. ^ Reid, Jan (July 5, 2010). The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock: New Edition. University of Texas Press.
  11. ^ Hudson, Kathleen (Aug 1989). "The Son Also Rises". Spin. Vol. 5, no. 5. p. 20.
  12. ^ a b "James McMurtry". Trouser Press. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  13. ^ a b Monahan, Casey (24 Aug 1989). "Clever McMurtry lyrics shore up masterful LP". Austin American-Statesman. p. G2.
  14. ^ Leland, John (27 Oct 1989). "Stark Stories from the Son of McMurtry". Weekend. Newsday. p. 15.
  15. ^ a b "Too Long in the Wasteland". AllMusic.
  16. ^ a b "James McMurtry". Robert Christgau.
  17. ^ a b The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 464.
  18. ^ McKeough, Kevin L. (October 15, 1992). "Rootless people: James McMurtry runs from the wasteland". Chicago Reader.
  19. ^ "Picks to Click". Texas Monthly. Vol. 17, no. 9. Sep 1989. p. 92.
  20. ^ Campbell, Rod (24 Dec 1989). "McMurtry provides feast for the senses". Edmonton Journal. p. D4.
  21. ^ Holden, Stephen (October 25, 1989). "The Pop Life". The New York Times.
  22. ^ Dafoe, Chris (9 Nov 1989). "Too Long in the Wasteland James McMurtry". The Globe and Mail. p. C10.
  23. ^ Joyce, Mike (29 Sep 1989). "McMurtry in Step with Big Daddy". The Washington Post. p. N26.
  24. ^ Athitakis, Mark (June 25, 1997). "James McMurtry". Salon.
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