Monday, September 28, 2009

Choctaw Bingo

I'm too hungover from last night's The Hold Steady show at Lee's Palace to write anything original. My blogger buddy at A Truer Sound showed me this piece on Slate by Ron Rosenbaum and I thought it was brilliant. The article is a tongue-in-cheek (I think?) opinion piece on why James McMurtry's song "Choctaw Bingo" should be the new United States national anthem. "Choctaw Bingo" is the best fucking song ever. Enjoy...
It's rare for me to devote an entire column to a single song—although I once did so for Joni Mitchell's "Amelia"—but in this case it's a song by a singer whose name is not very well-known and whose name I want to make known.

His name is James McMurtry, and that—his name—initially presented an obstacle to my appreciating his work. I've been intrigued by McMurtry ever since my girlfriend came back from a trip to the far reaches of inner America. She'd heard this song—and other great McMurtry cuts—while driving long stretches of West Texas and Oklahoma. When she played me McMurtry's masterpiece "Choctaw Bingo," I couldn't stop thinking about it.

......continue reading here.
Choctaw Bingo.mp3
Buy: Saint Mary of the Woods (2002)

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