#bettysoo

[musiconspotify]

Bettysoo - If You Never Go Away (2025) … the queen of sad songs …

[sinceileftyoublog]

James McMurtry & BettySoo Live Show Review: 8/15, FitzGerald's, Berwyn

James McMurtry

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Prior to the final song in his main set Friday night outside at FitzGerald's, singer-songwriter James McMurtry took a moment to acknowledge the unique nature of the venue. "Thanks for building this place," he said. "That's a commitment you don't see in every town." The opener, McMurtry bandmate and solo artist BettySoo, also remarked that the case of FitzGerald's is unusual in this day and age. When the namesake family owners of FitzGerald's retired just before COVID in 2020, not only did new proprietor Will Duncan indeed commit to the establishment, helping it withstand an unprecedented global pandemic via socially distanced patio nights, he saw through the continual booking of outdoor shows even as the world opened up, and the eventual recognition of FitzGerald's on the National Register of Historic Places. To most, keeping the venue the way it was would have been enough. "Usually, when a place gets sold, it goes downhill," said BettySoo. "The music gets bad, or it becomes a karaoke bar...this is the opposite!"

James McMurtry

A place as timeless as FitzGerald's, one that bucks contemporary trends, is perhaps the proper place in the Chicagoland area to see James McMurtry. In Chicago, it's rare for an artist of McMurtry's stature to have a regular bar gig, as he does in his hometown of Austin at The Continental Club with his touring band of guitarist Tim Holt, bassist Cornbread, drummer Daren Hess, and (sometimes) BettySoo on backing vocals. Friday at FitzGerald's seemed like it could have been one of those regular nights in Texas, the fans singing along just as much to his 2020s material as classic stomper "Choctaw Bingo" and Crazy Horse-level burner "Too Long in the Wasteland". The opening lines and chords to "Canola Fields", the first track on 2021 comeback record The Horses and the Hounds, garnered the most cheers. As the band played past time, the crowd nonetheless demanded an encore, so McMurtry came out on stage, with no PA, and did an acoustic, mic-less "Blackberry Winter", audience members chanting the refrain, "Tell you no!" like they were eternal words.

James McMurtry, BettySoo, & Daren Hess

Though aspects of McMurtry's set were consistent with any given night over the past several decades, his rebellious tendencies shined especially in the context of today. As he snapped a picture of the crowd between "Childish Things" and "Copper Canteen", he quipped that he was taking, "some video for the FBI." When telling the crowd to get home safely and joking, "If you're going somewhere after this, be nice to the nice officer," he clarified, "but you don't have to be nice to the ICE officer." Of course, "Choctaw Bingo" in and of itself is always a political statement, a simultaneous empathetic look at rural America and chiding of the systems that make us obsessed with guns, drugs, and money. He repeated the line, "And a Desert Eagle, that's one great big ol' pistol / I mean, 50-caliber made by bad-ass Hebrews," a not-so-subtle jab at the fact that the countries that create weapons for supposed self-protection at home manufacture killing machines overseas. When you drill down, humor and humanism come from the same etymology, a phenomenon McMurtry exemplifies.

BettySoo

BettySoo

BettySoo, on the other hand, is certainly funny, but she puts her characters through the wringer. Peer singer-songwriters Bonnie Whitmore and Jaimee Harris dubbed her "Queen of the Bummer Jams;" if a couple is hopelessly in love at the beginning of a BettySoo song, they'll be at each other's throats by the third verse. Being alone, though, is not necessarily bad, according to BettySoo. "So many friends broke up during COVID and became happier," she said on Friday. Songs like "Never Knew No Love" and "Blackout"--the latter performed with McMurtry and Hess--became celebratory anthems of freedom earned, or even freedom to come. "We’re gonna lie here together like nothing’s wrong / Window unit moaning its own sad song," she and McMurtry sang. On paper, it reads like a line from a John Prine or Townes Van Zandt heartbreaker. In the hands of McMurtry and BettySoo, the utilitarian, inanimate objects are symbols of survival and thriving.

BettySoo

BettySoo

[sinceileftyoublog]

James McMurtry & BettySoo Live Preview: 8/15, FitzGerald's, Berwyn

James McMurtry; Photo by Mary Keating-Bruton

BY JORDAN MAINZER

On his latest album The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy (New West), James McMurtry's got his head in the past. As a writer, he often culls from reference points with ambiguous beginnings, lines or characters that pop into his mind and bear a song. This time around, the inspirations are a bit more clear and concrete. For one, the record is McMurtry's first penned since the death of his father, beloved author Larry McMurtry; it gets its title and art from figures Larry hallucinated. It's bookended by covers, the opener by Austin singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham (who suffered a stroke and underwent spinal surgery last year), the closer an anti-war classic by the late, great Kris Kristofferson. (I think of the last time I saw McMurtry live, his only real plea of the night to "tip your bartenders," his inclusion of Graham and Kristofferson tunes a show of recognition, appreciation, and solidarity.) He's also pondering American history, 9/11 ("Annie") and a legacy of institutional racism ("Sons of the Second Sons"). "Tellin' ourselves we're free / Sons of the pagan serfs / Salt of the fuckin’ Earth / In search of a Caesar," he sings on the latter, diagnosing a world that continues to hold onto border walls and racist flags.

However, that on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy McMurtry dabbles in hyper realism and uber specific citations (seriously, he interpolates "Weird Al" Yankovic on the title track) only serves to make his fables seem all the more palpable. Take "South Texas Lawman", wherein McMurtry sees humanity in a cop who laments getting in trouble for rough ways that used to positively define him, the ultimate sign of a changing society. You may not believe you have much in common with a person who "hunts quail from horseback and cheats on both his wives" as a source of pride, but in McMurtry's deftly empathetic delivery--along with the rich timbres of Diana Burgess' cello and producer Don Dixon's slide guitar and trombone--you almost root for the titular tough guy. On "Pinocchio in Vegas", McMurtry uses the metaphor of the wooden boy to muse on lost innocence, from its all-timer opening line ("Pinocchio's in Vegas with his eye on the prize / He's a real boy now, his dick grows when he lies") to the sighing admission that "he's had to learn to be an asshole, just like everybody else." And "Back to Coeur d'Alene" is practically its own narrative arc within the record, a tale of someone trying to make it in Hollywood, leaving behind a bitter family. McMurtry's anthemic refrain of "gotta get known" could be taken straight out of a musical, Red Young's organ solo, BettySoo's backing vocals, accordion, and tambourine, and Bonnie Whitmore's bass acting as orchestral flourishes atop McMurtry's core band. "Why do I feel like a criminal for taking a good long shot?" asks the narrator. Whether the people on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy existed or not, they struggle to toe the line between ambition and hubris, McMurtry omniscient, not judgmental, just telling it like it is.

BettySoo; Photo by Jeff Fasano

McMurtry plays tomorrow night at FitzGerald's, outdoors, doors at 5:00 P.M., show at 6. Tickets are sold out. Opening for him is his own bandmate and collaborator, BettySoo, who herself recently released a very good album, If You Never Go Away. It's full of songs about love and love lost, individuals still enamored with their exes via keepsakes ("Memento") or as evidenced by yearning ("What Would I Do?). BettySoo knows that objects and memories contain meaning, and that meaning can come and go as it pleases, so she never takes endearment for granted. "I will gather all these scattered tokens of your lovering," she sings on "Lovering", sculpting and collaging passion itself, aware later on "Light It Up" that "we know how to set ablaze what's left of us." Similar in theme but unique in aesthetic is "Human Echo", rife with bossa nova organ and drum clacks and a swaying melody. No matter BettySoo's style of expression, on If You Never Go Away, she effectively explores how we carry pieces of others with ourselves, at all times.

[americanahighways]

Show Review: James McMurtry at Birchmere Sept 7

Show Review: James McMurtry at Birchmere Sept 7 @jamesmcmurtryofficial @bettysoo @glenncookphotography @americanahighways @thebirchmere #americanahighways #livemusicphotography #concertphotography #music #livemusicreviews #jamesmcmurtry

Show Review: James McMurtry at Birchmere Sept 7

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Chris Smither - All about the Bones

Chris Smither sets All about the Bones’ tone with the first cut - also the title track - from his 19th album.

With Zak Trojano’s light drumming and Chris Cheek’s spooky, serpentine saxophone adding shades of grey to Smither’s mic’d boots and acoustic guitar, the songwriter, on the cusp of his 80th birthday, contemplates what comes next. BettySoo smooths out Smither’s raspy, just-leaving-the-dentist vocals as they sing:

Grim reaper comes a-callin’/says, ‘it’s time to go’/you say, ‘OK, I’m comin’/you movin’ mighty slow/when you say, ‘I don’t belong here/they told me I was saved’/he points one bony finger/he says, ‘get back in your grave’/it’s all about the bones

While the music is uniformly misty and monochromatic, the lyrics are not all doom and gloom. The balladic “Still Believe in You” exudes positivity - or at least contentment - and “Down in Thidodaux” is an irresistible character sketch of an enigmatic fiddler in the Louisiana swamps that makes the listeners want to find the guy and join him for his regular noon beer.

Though he typically tours solo - hence being his own percussionist - Smither captures his live sound with in this expanded studio outfit, which includes piano on “Completion.”

And when Smither closes the LP with his cover of Tom Petty’s “Time to Move On,” it’s hard to know whether he chose it as a bookend to the title track or a springboard to his next project.

Grade card: Chris Smither - All about the Bones - B

8/13/24

[americanahighways]

Show Review: WoodyFest 2024 - Part 3

Show Review: WoodyFest 2024 - Part 3 @davidnowelsphotography @americanahighways @woodyfest @jaimeeharris @jamesmcmurtryofficial @bettysoo @misskierston @sguth3 @cartersampson #davidamram @therealdanbern @timeastonsongwriter #livemusicphotography #conertreviews #festivalreviews @beatrootrvival #audreybrown @saddaddy @melissacarper @jacobtovarmusic

Show Review: WoodyFest 2024 - Part 3

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Chris Smither - “Time to Move On”

If Tom Petty sounded more like Chris Smither, perhaps Sound Bites would be as big a Tom Petty fan as is Chris Smither. But Petty didn’t and Sound Bites isn’t.

Thankfully, however, Smither chose to record Petty’s “Time to Move On” to close his forthcoming All about the Bones LP. And this version - festooned with Smither’s shoe-leather percussion and acoustic guitar, David Goodrich’s sinewy electric guitar and BettySoo’s sunshiny co-leads lighting up Smither’s cloudy baritone - makes a Chris Smither song out of this Tom Petty composition.

To Smither’s way of thinking, “Time to Move On” is “just a great song by a guy who had an uncanny knack for turning out pop hits that don’t sound like they’re meant to be pop hits.” That is indeed true of Smither’s rendition, bookended as it is by studio chatter and laughter that makes it sound like a one-take recording.

Maybe it is that. Or maybe it is not. And it doesn’t matter, for this third preview of Bones’ May 3 arrival - it follows “Down in Thibodaux” and the title track - is a gem.

Grade card: Chris Smither - “Time to Move On” - A

4/12/24

[sinceileftyoublog]

James McMurtry Live Show Review: 6/10, Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago

James McMurtry

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Something about how there were no gigs in the middle of Canada, noticing the chartreuse-colored fields on the drive from one side to the other, realizing the plants were made into canola oil: “And that’s how I knew how to finish the song,” James McMurtry admitted to the crowd at the Old Town School of Folk Music on Saturday before playing “Canola Fields”. As much as he’s labeled a political songwriter, his songs usually stem from a simple idea, or even an image or a line. “I get a couple of lines and a melody together and think, 'Who said it?' Then I come up with the character,” he told us six years ago. He certainly hasn’t strayed from his process on his latest album The Horses and the Hounds (New West); even if the album’s songs contain the occasional right-wing jab, they’re still a product of him encompassing somebody or something. That is, he’s just as likely to sing from the point of view as someone he doesn’t agree with, which is what ultimately makes him an empathetic songwriter, up there with Steve Earle and John Prine.

Tim Holt & James McMurtry

There’s no doubt McMurtry is an inspirational figure. He most recently garnered headlines for playing a Nashville show in drag in protest of Tennessee’s now temporarily blocked anti-drag law. In a recent Q & A with Little Village, he responded to a question about whether he would continue to wear a dress by saying, “If states keep pulling stupid laws like that and I need to pull it on for the encore. I carry the dress in my suitcase in case I need it.” In other words, his actions are responsive, not gimmicky statements. Towards the beginning of the show on Saturday, an audience member on Saturday night shouted, “Where’s your dress?” perhaps hoping to get a reaction out of McMurtry, some sort of rousing support for drag performers. He didn’t respond, perhaps silently demurring. A similar thing happened after the venerable band (bassist Cornbread, drummer Daren Hess, multi-instrumentalist Tim Holt) burned through “Choctaw Bingo”, a slice of rural realism that Ron Rosenbaum once proposed replace our National Anthem. “Stop all wars!” someone shouted after the song finished, again to silence from McMurtry. Good sentiments aside, McMurtry’s success as a songwriter comes specifically because he avoids generic left-leaning platitudes. He lets the stories do the talking.

James McMurtry & Cornbread

Similarly, on stage, McMurtry truly makes space for songcraft. “This is the happiest song I ever wrote,” he said introducing “If I Don’t Bleed”, citing the fact that nobody dies in it, “at least not directly.” Trading the studio version’s rollicking rocker for a gentler version, he ensured his words of compassion rang true. Ditto for “Blackberry Winter”, the Virginia Woolf-referencing tune that sees McMurtry begging the author to not go through with suicide and “leave the rocks on the road;” performed with an acoustic guitar and no mic, it was a direct prayer to the audience itself. And Holt’s wistful accordion gave Complicated Game cuts “Copper Canteen” and “You Got To Me” a sense of old timey nostalgia, perfect for the narrators’ glassy eyed reflections. It seemed like for every expected extended jam, like “Choctaw Bingo” and “Too Long in the Wasteland”, there was a similar moment of unexpected subtlety.

Cornbread & BettySoo

Ultimately, McMurtry is selfless. His one sermon of the night? Tip your bartenders, by starting at 20% and going higher. Opener BettySoo remarked how grateful she was McMurtry brought her along, considering he could easily tour by himself and play 3 hours worth of material to larger venues. And it shows in his songwriting, his exploration of characters fictional and real, his humble recognition that the truths of the world lie somewhere beyond even his grasp.

BettySoo