{"product_id":"live-in-aught-three","title":"Live in Aught-Three","description":"Full performer name: James McMurty \u0026amp; The Heartless Bastards.\u003cbr\u003eJames McMurty \u0026amp; The Heartless Bastards: James McMurtry (vocals, guitar); Ronnie Johnson (bass, background vocals); Darren Hess (drums).\u003cbr\u003eRecorded live at The Zephyr, Salt Lake City, Utah; The Orange Peel, Asheville, North Carolina; and 12th \u0026amp; Porter, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003.\u003cbr\u003eJames McMurtry's written plenty of great songs, but he's never made a great album. His character sketches and stories have always rung true, and he's as perceptive a chronicler of the disaffected and alienated as you'll find, but his limited vocal range and sometimes almost-indifferent delivery have made even his best discs, Too Long in the Wasteland and Where'd You Hide the Body a struggle to get through. Live in Aught-Three isn't a great album, but the live setting lets McMurtry and his backing group, the Heartless Bastards, breathe real rock \u0026amp; roll life into many of these songs for the first time. \"Levelland,\" an account of stasis in the fly-over land, aches with a longing for something, anything, that's more exciting than high-school football games and farms, and \"Red Dress\" burns with an angry intensity that you'd never have guessed McMurtry had in him. We also get a dose of McMurtry's deadpan humor on a few between-song asides (\"I used to think I was an artist. Come to find out I'm a beer salesman\") and a hilarious delineation between intellectuals and good ol' boys. In fact, the strongest material here -- and McMurtry's best work overall -- are the ones in which he finds both the humor and the pathos in quirky, nasty characters like the ticked-off heir to the worthless farmland of \"60 Acres,\" or the twisted crew at a family reunion in \"Choctaw Bingo.\" If McMurtry's albums haven't caught your attention before, Live in Aught-Three is a perfect opportunity to reassess him. ~ Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen","brand":"MovieMars","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51052607996191,"sku":"804879283942","price":31.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/7833\/0399\/files\/542c66401806044a4fdda660351e33f6.jpg?v=1752705986","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemars.com\/products\/live-in-aught-three","provider":"MovieMars","version":"1.0","type":"link"}