Music Notes (Farley Edition)

On July 28 I had the opportunity to travel to Nashville to attend Amanda Shires’ new album release party at the Blue Room. It was a terrific show and the album is outstanding. I’m a big fan of Shires’ previous work all the way back to Carrying Lightning, but there’s definitely an evolution evident here. The sudden shift in tone from the abstract to the personal has long been her specialty, evident in Bulletproof:

It’s got me thinkin’ now
What if I really could be bulletproof?

Would bulletproof include bows and arrows
Hatchets and hammers, bandoliers full of ammo?
Anything from hacksaws to hand grenades
We could set me up in my grandad’s pasture
And have ourselves a live target practice
Try out the throwing stars, bring out the switchblades

And maybe folks would line up, show up armed
Excited for a person to try their weapons out on
And we could charge money
We could charge a whole lot of money

Against you shot gunnin’ across my mind
And I’ve taken you back too many times
Could I be armored against you too?
Against all the ways that words cut through
Against promises breaking into open wounds
And the result in scars

Or Breaking Out the Champagne:

Somewhere above the Newfoundland Sea
Pilot said we’d lost an engine
In a split-second, I made an executive decisionI said “Break out the champagne
Everybody look out below
Let’s get on with the shitshow
Here goes a toast: Adios!”This mornin’ Love told her he was leavin’
He said they’d be better as friends
It’s no one’s fault: his heart wants what it wants
And then she thought “I’m rock ‘n’ roll, and you’re golf”

There’s a touch of whimsy to this but also a purposeful deflection, setting the pain aside to change the terms of conversation. It allows Shires to be light and heartfelt at the same time. Most of the songs on this album are… not that. Don’t Be Alarmed:

Don’t be alarmed
Don’t look away
Somebody’s heart breaks
Every hour, every day

Don’t hide your eyes
Don’t stare at the sky
I’m losing my balance
I’m not losing my mind

Stay right where you’re standing
Take it all in
At least be a witness
See it to the end

It makes for a very different experience. Folks in the know are probably aware of the tensions in her marriage, and she leaves this very open on the album; No One’s Fault in particular pulls no punches. Isbell was in attendance and joined Shires for an encore of The Problem, which predictably brought down the house, but appropriately the focus was on Shires. To be sure there are some lighter tracks on the second half of the album, but there’s no question that this is a significant change in tone from Shires. She’s amazing live and you should go to one of her shows.

Three days after Shires I saw James McMurtry. I’ve been a fan since Loomis turned me on with a spin of Live in Aught 3. His latest album is absolutely fantastic, as was the show. One of my new favorite songs:

And there’s not much moving on the romance radar
Not that I’m craving it all that much
But I still need to feel every once in a while
The warmth of a smile and a touch
And in a way back corner of a cross-town bus
We were hiding out under my hat
Cashing in on a thirty-year crush
You can’t be young and do that

Somehow that resonates with me. Anyway, McMurtry’s approach is to combine absolute professionalism with a general lack of bullshit, which I’m sure will appeal to the many discerning denizens of this here blog.