Dave Alvin and James McMurtry, Paradise Rock Club, January 25, 2007
By JIM SULLIVAN | February 12, 2007
It was a night of workingman’s blues at the Paradise last Thursday. Hard battles fought in song. Some won, some lost. Maybe some fans were gained or secured. About 270 had their fill during a three-hour roots-rock workout that was both a respite from and a reminder of real life. Singer-songwriter David Alvin, who’s put in time as a Blaster and as a member of X, set the rootsy tone with his backing quartet, and James McMurtry — he of the Bush-bashing, CEO-whacking “They Can’t Make It Here” — followed on a tour that’s seen the two share the spotlight. “It doesn’t matter,” Alvin said after his set. “It’s roots music. . . . The audience is totally disparate. James and I are similar, but not similar in many ways.”True enough: Alvin conjures desperate characters in songs whose grim lyrics are often offset by sharp guitar hooks and buoyant organ melodies, whereas McMurtry draws on muted cries of pain from the heartland for his more linear storytelling. He’s not given to big melodic peaks and valleys, relying instead on little details in both his words and music. He can and did rock, but his strength is as a wordsmith, and that in part is why the terse anthem “We Can’t Make It Here” carried the night. Written prior to Bush’s election in 2004, it hasn’t lost any of its bite.
“He’s really negative,” said Leigh Montville, a sportswriter (formerly Globe, now Sports Illustrated) and biographer who was in the crowd. Not wanting to be misunderstood, he added, “But he’s great.”
In his black hat and beard, the long-haired McMurtry cruised up and down bittersweet alleys, sometimes at too even a keel. Still, his steady-ahead approach had a cumulative appeal. “It’s been a lot of fun, folks,” he deadpanned at the end. Alvin and his guys cranked out a smoking set of what Little Feat once called “Old Folks Boogie.” Keyboardist Joe Terry had his synth dialed to Hammond B-3 and guitarists Chris Miller and Alvin himself kept the musical good times rolling even as bad times surfaced in the lyrics.
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