Written by James Killen
McMurtry has created another enigmatically beautiful disc in that he has taken the ugliest part of who we are as Americans and romanticized it. James McMurtry is one of the most talented lyricists to write an Americana song, but he has a tendency toward expressing a negative attitude and never more so than on “Complicated Game”. The album is named for a line in the song, “She Loves Me”, which explores the contradictions inherent in an open relationship. “She Loves Me” is the fourth track on the disc following three songs dedicated to regret and emptiness.
What James McMurtry has tapped into on this disc is the discontent with the way things are going in the backwashes of America. There are couples in the Midwest that have drifted apart (Copper Canteen), people that look back on their youth wishing they could get it back (You Got to Me, Long Island Sound), soldiers coming back from the war to find that their old lifestyles won’t support them anymore (South Dakota), old fishermen whose lifestyle is no longer tenable (Carlisle’s Haul), and people that have no place to call home (Ain’t Got a Place).
Not all of the tunes came from darkness. “Deaver’s Crossing” is dedicated to the old “salt of the earth” folks that populated McMurtry’s rural home town and “These Things I’ve Come to Know”, an ode to a tough lady bar tender. “Forgotten Coast” is about escaping the rest of the world by going incognito in a backwash in the Florida panhandle.
“Complicated Game” is predominately an acoustic production with rich guitar, banjo and mandolin music supporting McMurtry’s superbly woven lyrics, which speaks to the sincerity of the subject matter. This is his most folksy production to date, yet he does leave room for one rocking anthem on the disc, “How’m I Gonna Find You Now”, with an “AABBB” rhyming scheme that, along with a heavy backbeat, literally propels the song into a rocking banjo/guitar marathon.
McMurtry closes the album with “Cutter” about a spurned lover that deals with his grief by cutting himself. Sorrow and misfortune are realities of life and while they are not the most attractive facets of our livelihood, they are realities. Living in denial of them would be Pollyanna unrealistic. James McMurtry gives us an avenue through “Complicated Game” to address many of the issues that some would rather leave unseen.