Too Long in the Wasteland | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1989 | |||
Genre | Rock, country, folk | |||
Label | Columbia [1] | |||
Producer | John Mellencamp | |||
James McMurtry chronology | ||||
|
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]
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]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Austin American-Statesman | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | B+ [16] |
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
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" |
Too Long in the Wasteland | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1989 | |||
Genre | Rock, country, folk | |||
Label | Columbia [1] | |||
Producer | John Mellencamp | |||
James McMurtry chronology | ||||
|
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]
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]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Austin American-Statesman | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Robert Christgau | B+ [16] |
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
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" |