{"id":2391,"date":"2018-08-03T08:36:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T13:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2018-08-03T08:36:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T13:36:09","slug":"just-us-kids-in-the-parking-lot-james-mcmurtry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/just-us-kids-in-the-parking-lot-james-mcmurtry\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Just Us Kids in The Parking Lot&#8217; \u2014 James McMurtry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wpf_wrapper\"><a class=\"print_link\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Print this entry<\/a><\/p><!-- .wpf_wrapper --><p><a href=\"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/just-us-kids-in-the-parking-lot-james-mcmurtry\/taos-mesa-brewing-co-small\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2392\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2392\" src=\"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small-600x411.jpg 600w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small-1024x701.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small-680x466.jpg 680w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Taos-Mesa-Brewing-Co-small.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/just-us-kids-in-the-parking-lot-james-mcmurtry\/james-mcmurtry-small\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2393\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2393\" src=\"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small-252x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small-252x300.jpg 252w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small-600x714.jpg 600w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small-768x914.jpg 768w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small-860x1024.jpg 860w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small-680x810.jpg 680w, https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-McMurtry-small.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px\" \/><\/a>EL PRADO, NEW MEXICO \u2014 We arrived about 6 p.m. at Taos Mesa Brewing, a funky brewpub called the \u201cMothership,\u201d since there are two smaller locations. The Mothership is built of rusted steel, glass and translucent plastic, with a large amphitheatre in back. Next door is an RV park filled with old Airstreams and other trailers for rent.<\/p>\n<p>El Prado, a rural suburb of Taos, is 10 miles southeast of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, the second-highest bridge on the U.S. Highway System. The view from the bridge is beautiful, a bit scary to walk across, with the canyon bottom 650 feet below. Warning signs and emergency phones are scattered about because several dozen poor souls have committed suicide in the past few decades by plunging over the rail. I take photos of three bighorn sheep grazing along the canyon wall and try to ignore the queasy feeling in my stomach while looking down.<\/p>\n<p>Singer-songwriter James McMurtry and his band members are setting up to play about 90 minutes early. McMurtry is the son of renowned novelist Larry McMurtry and possesses his dad\u2019s gift for story telling. Only he does it with richly textured songs that feel like four-minute audio films. Novelist Stephen King once wrote, \u201cThe simple fact is that James McMurtry may be the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Honey, don\u2019t you be yelling at me when I\u2019m cleaning my gun.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I\u2019ll clean the blood off the tailgate when deer season\u2019s done.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We\u2019ve got one more weekend to go.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And I\u2019d like to kill one more doe.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\u201cCopper Canteen\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are at best a dozen folks inside, while another 20 or so sit outside, watching the clouds darken and the wind gust, lightning visible in the distance. This is monsoon season in Northern New Mexico, with thunderstorms arriving most afternoons about 5, driving temperatures down even lower. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I drove to the Taos area from East Texas for precisely that reason, to escape the heat for a week. We have not been disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>I go to the bar to order a beer. Since my daughter and son-in-law opened City Acre Brewing in Houston two years ago, I make it a point to sample other microbrews, take a photo of the beer menu and pass along my experiences. It\u2019s a burden, but I am determined to fulfill my familial duty.<\/p>\n<p>I look to my right. James McMurtry is standing next to me, waiting to get a beer while thumbing through his phone. At 56, the resemblance to his father, who is 82, is more pronounced than when both were younger. James is tall with shoulder-length hair, thick glasses and a seemingly unchanging somber expression. I race through possible introductory lines but can\u2019t think of anything beyond the typical fan-guy stuff, like, \u201cMan, you are the finest songwriter in this land.\u201d Which, in my view he is, though Jason Isbell occupies the same rarified territory.<\/p>\n<p>So I say nothing to him, just nod and order my beer. It was a hoppy IPA called Jonesy\u2019s Cross Eye Rye, which I recommend if you end up in El Prado.<br \/>\nThe brewpub slowly fills up as the 7:30 start time approaches, an eclectic mix of old hippies with gray ponytails, women in long flowing peasant skirts, a scattering of younger folks as well. The side door near where we\u2019re seated is open, ushering in a lovely cool breeze. We are seated next to Gunther and Marurava, who live in Candy Kitchen, about 250 miles south of El Prado. It is described in Wikipedia as, \u201chome to many homesteader families, regular folks, hippies, Radical Faeries, Ramah Navajos, Zuni Puebloans, nihilistic survivalists, reclusivists, people who like their privacy, people who enjoy living simply, and many other outcasts who live on the fringes of society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sounds about right, judging from our conversation with Gunther and Marauva.<\/p>\n<p>|\u2014\u2014\u2014|<\/p>\n<p>McMurtry and his band take the stage at the appointed hour. As he launches into his first song, a few dozen folks begin dancing in front of the stage. It has never occurred to me to dance to a McMurtry song, but that\u2019s just me. He runs through an impressive lineup of songs \u2014 \u201cChoctaw Bingo,\u201d \u201cYou Got to Me,\u201d and \u201cLevelland,\u201d \u2014 to name a few. The latter was made popular by Robert Earl Keen, and McMurtry seems to resent it a bit, invariably pointing out that <em>he<\/em> wrote the song, not Keen.<\/p>\n<p>While he is known for his lyrics, McMurtry also has a fine voice and knows his way around the neck of a guitar, backed by the Heartless Bastards. These guys have been together a while. Between songs, McMurtry delivers one-liners while peering myopically out at the crowd, only a hint of a smile creasing his face.<\/p>\n<p>After a perfunctory encore, the show is over. We walk out into the New Mexico night, the storm over, the temperature in the 50s. It has been a fine night in El Prado.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wpf_wrapper\"><a class=\"print_link\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Print this entry<\/a><\/p><!-- .wpf_wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Print this entry EL PRADO, NEW MEXICO \u2014 We arrived about 6 p.m. at Taos Mesa Brewing, a funky brewpub called the \u201cMothership,\u201d since there are two smaller locations. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[55,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-55","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}