James McMurtry is by far my favorite new artist. Well, relatively new to me at least... -Even though as it turns out I have actually been listening to him since college (way back in the early nineties) when he had radio play with "Painting by Numbers" and "Where's Johnny?". But I digress.

While at college at Montana State University I managed to earn a degree in English Literature ruthlessly beating the life out of all the classics, (I truly do apologize, Mr. T.S. Eliot.) so I feel both qualified and compelled to rebut Mr. Rosenbaum's analysis of McMurtry's flagship "Choctaw Bingo"

But don't lament, Mr. Rosenbaum. There's really nothing you could have done. Having grown up on Long Island you just couldn't possibly understand. As James said in his between-song-commentary on "Live in Aught-Three", "A good ol' boy can become an intellectual, but an intellectual cannot become a good ol' boy." Being from a dusty little cowtown on the edge of the Crow reservation I feel that I not only understand McMurtry's anthem, in many ways I have lived it.

I could write a thirty page thesis on this song, but for the sake of brevity I will limit myself to a few key points.

"Sells his hardwood timber to the chipping mill
Cooks that crystal meth because the ! shine don't sell
He cooks that crystal meth because the shine don't sell
You know he likes his money, he don't mind the smell."

Parallels to the mortgage meltdown might be seen in hindsight, but this is really a celebration of capitalism in its rawest form. For good and for bad, this is the principle that built America to begin with. It reminds me of when I was a boy riding shotgun with my father and we drove by a reeking feedlot. When I plugged my nose he laughed and dryly quipped, "Smells like money."

But the invasion of urbanism is also illustrated here. Not long ago, about the worst thing found out in the sticks was a half-rack of Coors or maybe a bottle of Jack... -or moonshine. Meanwhile urban centers rotted with crack and heroin. But since the shine don't sell, as a good American capitalist he'll offer what does. Buyer beware.

"stopped and bought a couple of cartons of cigarettes
At that Indian Smoke Shop with the big neon smoke rings
In the Cherokee Nation hit Muskogee late that night
Somebody ran a stoplight at the Shawnee Bypass
Roscoe tried to miss 'em but he didn't quite...."

Rosenbaum immediately injects social commentary here about the casinos, " I think they're a disguised form of reparations for the theft of Indian land. I'm glad the tribes are making billions taking the foolish white man's money." While he is entitled to his opinion, it is through the lens of someone far far away from the daily grind of life on the reservation. Folks there are too busy getting up before dawn to work the ranch, or closing the local bar (or both) to worry about what should or shouldn't have happened a hundred years ago. The way he "lopes" over the lyrics only illustrates how the seemingly unsual environment of island nations, remote casinos and tobacco shops is really just everyday life for those who live there. I do agree though that the last line is one of his best.

Along these same lines, the passages about going shooting for us who live there is no more remarkable than playing a game of pick-up basketball or horseshoes. And to add to the inane-as-mundane, "As soon as it gets dark we're gonna have us a time." Waiting for night to go shooting seems a rediculously redneck thing to do. -Except for the fact that they have "surplus tracers for that old B.A.R." (Browning Automatic Rifle...illegal to own without special license WWII vintage armament) When else are you supposed to shoot tracers? (which aren't legal either by the way) To fire them in daylight would be a waste.

And on it goes. So while "Choctaw Bingo" is a great account of western life on the rez, it is much more a celebration of that life than a social commentary of the world at large. And while McMurtry in other songs makes it more than clear he is a leftist politically, he is also most likely has happily lived many of the experiences in this song and is a proud Texan at heart. The two are not mutually exclusive.