Candyland

For his second album, singer-songwriter James McMurtry again went back into the studio with John Mellencamp as his producer and with Mellencamp’s backing band even more tightly poised. *Candyland*, from 1992, while still lyrically strong, looked to showcase McMurtry the heartland rocker. Lyrics are pruned and choruses are sharpened. Trilling organs and tougher guitars produce a wall of sound that McMurtry maneuvers with an experienced hand. Thematically McMurtry’s obsessed with how people pass the time and how happiness can be a state of oblivion more than a case of circumstance. The opening gambit, “Where’s Johnny” sets the tone, as a promising high-school academic and athlete succumbs to emotional disturbance and lives in his parents’ house past thirty, while the tract-housing occupants of the title tune sleepwalk with indifference. “Good Life” defines itself by mere survival. “Storekeeper” traces the bitterness of a successful shop owner who can’t empathize with his lowly customers’ plights. Like an American Ray Davies, McMurtry’s a sociologist working as a songwriter.

Like Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler (but with less mumble), James McMurtry offers a deep, personable (if plain) voice and delivery, equally suited to both country and rock.