James McMurtry's "Ruby and Carlos"

This is one of James McMurtry's many classics, a six and a half minute seemingly book-length song detailing a doomed relationship.

 

“Ruby And Carlos”

Ruby said “You’re gettin’ us in a world of hurt.
Down below the Mason-Dumbass line the food gets worse.
I can’t go back to Tennessee
that NASCAR country’s not for me.
Go on, if you think you must.”

Carlos packed his drums up in the dark of night
Ruby’s standing just outside the front porch light
chain-smoking Camel straights
the sky off to the east got gray
And he rolled off in a cloud of dust.

And the gray colt knickered at the gate
She said “You’re right its getting late.
You and me got work to do
we can’t be burning daylight too.”
She took down the long lead rope
and stayed off that slippery slope

The aspen trees were turning gold up top
The talk was buzzin ’round the beauty shop
“Wasn’t he barely half her age.
Well that’s just how they do now days.
We should all had been so lucky.”

By spring she’d had the run of the free born men
Ruby turned 50 in a sheep camp tent
her body still could rock all night
but her heart was closed and locked up tight

Potato fields all muddy and brown
the gossip long since quieted down

And after one more Coggins test
Pouring coffee for the county vet
Pictures on the ice box door
of Carlos in the first Gulf War
Black-eyed brown and youthful face
smiling back from a Saudi base

And then Carlos on the big bay mare
Heavier now and longer hair
Looking past the saddle shed
From way on back inside his head

And the old vet said, “One day, Rube,
that colt will break an egg in you.
Now and then one comes along
you just can’t ride.” And he went on home.

And the storm door didn’t catch
It blew back hard as she struck a match
But she cupped it just in time
And she sent that ash tray flyin’

And holding back the flood
Just don’t do no good
You can’t unclench your teeth
To howl the way you should
So you curl your lips around
The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
That no one owns but you
No one owns but you.

Carlos took the road gig and he saw it through
He rode the tour bus while the singer flew
Managed out of music row
Carlos never saw the studio
Session guys had that all sewn up.

He looks out the window and it starts to sleet
Laying on a friend’s couch on Nevada Street
Lately he’s been staying high
Sick all winter and they don’t know why
They don’t know why or they just won’t say
They don’t talk much down at the V.A.

And Ruby’s in his thoughts sometimes
What thoughts can get out past the wine
He feels her fingers on his brow
And right then he misses how
She looked in that gray morning light
She never shaved like they all do now
He sees it all behind his eyes
and his hands go searching but they come up dry

And half way in that wakin’ dream
Carlos lets the land line ring
He never guessed it was Ruby calling
The pin in her hip from the gray colt falling
Figure eight in a lazy lope
Stumbled on that slippery slope

And holding back the flood
Just don’t do no good
You can’t unclench your teeth
To howl the way you should
So you curl your lips around
The taste, the tears, and the hollow sound
That no one owns but you
No one owns but you.

"The best songwriters can create a great song from even the most inconspicuous origins. Case in point: “Ruby And Carlos,” an instant classic from James McMurtry’s 2008 album Just Us Kids. McMurtry told Kentucky’s WNKU during an in-studio performance of the song that he wrote it after a chance comment by a member of his touring crew: “That all started ‘cause we were driving South. You know how some Waffle Houses work pretty well and others are totally dysfunctional? We hit one of the dysfunctional ones and Tim, the sound man, comin’ out the door, he said, ‘I guess we must have crossed the Mason-Dumbass Line.’ So I had to figure out a song to put that in.” Thus, “Ruby And Carlos” was born, a love story told after the dissolution of the relationship. Yet the song becomes bigger than the relationship or even these two broken lives; it represents the distance that often gapes between American dreams and the realities that befall those who dare to dream them. Ruby is the pragmatic one of the pair. Unable to stop Carlos from pursuing his doomed hopes of musical stardom, she stays at home and ekes out her measly existence, suffering the town gossip that comes along with dating a younger man. Yet her love for her wayward ex is evident in the pictures that she faithfully keeps in the hope of his return. Meanwhile, Carlos quickly finds out that his drums won’t be of any use to him, since the best he can do is be a roadie. Even that falls through when he gets ill, another former soldier who becomes a casualty after departing the battlefield: “Sick all winter and they don’t know why/Don’t know why or just won’t say/They don’t talk too much down at the VA.” As he lies in a fog of drugs and alcohol, his thoughts turn to Ruby and the passion they shared, but it’s no good now: “He sees it all behind his eyes/His hands go searching but they come up dry.” His stupor is so enveloping that doesn’t even hear Ruby’s desperate phone call. What McMurtry displays in this song is how, if the details are right, the emotions don’t need to be spelled out for the audience; they’ll come to the surface naturally. All of Ruby’s pent-up frustrations are evident in her futilely throwing an ashtray across the room; Carlos’ true standing in the world is clear from his lonely ride on the tour bus “while the singer flew.” In the chorus, McMurtry empathizes with all of those people out there struggling just like his protagonists: “You can’t unclench your teeth/ To howl the way you should/So you curl your lips around/The taste of tears and a hollow sound/That no one owns but you.” That Waffle House stop turned out to be a pretty productive one for James McMurtry. Maybe, in an alternate world more benevolent than this one, “Ruby And Carlos” found their way back together and had a cup of coffee there."

A new Ewan MacColl tribute release

"Ewan MacColl, Dogmatist of British Folk, Gets a Tribute Album"

Leon Bibb has passed

"Leon Bibb, at 93; folk singer became civil rights voice"

Kristofferson & Prine

Here's the link to a fascinating and informative article about John Prine and Kris Kristofferson who are currently teaming up in concerts but first met decades ago.

"I Can't Wait"

Just love this song:



Someday we’ll roll away the stone that we’ve carried for so long
All our burdens will be gone, and I can’t wait
We will find our way to an understanding of all views
No prayer shall be refused, I can’t wait

It seems we’ve gone too far now we don’t know where we are
I believe we’ll find a guiding star, but I can’t wait
If faith is the final place where all fears have been erased
And the locks have fallen from the gates, I can’t wait.

Someday we’ll roll away the stone that we’ve carried for so long
All our burdens will be gone, and I can’t wait
We will find our way to an understanding of all views
No prayer shall be refused, I can’t wait

A timely song from Steve Earle

Missed this from earlier in September - a new song from Steve Earle:

Josh Ritter's latest

As he's readying to drop a new release, here's a Josh Ritter update.

Mama got a look at you and got a little worried
Papa got a look at you and got a little worried
Pastor got a look and said, "Ya'll had better hurry"
Send her off to a little bible college in Missouri
And now you come back sayin' you know a little bit about
Everything they ever seemed to hope you'd never figure out
Eve ate the apple 'cause the apple was sweet
What kinda god would ever keep a girl
From getting what she needs?
And I'm getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down

Now people cross the street when you walk in their direction
Talk between their teeth throwin' epithets
And the doctor thinks a devil musta got you by your senses
But to live the way you please doesn't sound like possession
Four long years studyin' the Bible
Infidels, jezebels, salomes, and delilahs
Back off the bus in your own home town
Sayin' you didn't like me then probably won't like me now
But I'm getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down

The men of the country club
The ladies of the 'xilliary
Talkin' 'bout love
Like it's apple pie and libery
To really be a saint
You gotta really be a virgin
Dry as a page of the
King James Version
No ohh la la's, no oh yesses yesses
No I can't waits I got to see you againses
Turn your other cheek and take no chances
Jesus hates your high school dances

They said your soul needed savin' so they sent you off to bible school
But you know a little more than they were sure was in the golden rule
Be good to everybody, be a strength to the weak
A joy to the joyful, the laughter in the grief
And give your love freely to whoever that you please
Don't let nobody tell you 'bout who you oughta be
And when you get damned in the popular opinion
It's just another damn of the damns you're not giving
I'm getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down

Mama got a look at you and got a little worried
Papa got a look at you and got a little worried
Pastor got a look and said, "Ya'll had better hurry"
Send her off to a little bible college in Missouri
And now you come back sayin' you know a little bit about
Everything they ever seemed to hope you'd never figure out
The Red Sea, the Dead Sea, the Sermon on the Mount
If you wanna see a miracle watch me get down
Cause I'm getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down
Getting ready to get down

The latest on Iris Dement

Jonathan Bernstein talks with Iris Dement, about the genesis of her latest release and some of the songs.

Always loved this oldie (sorry about the video):

Dan Bern's Dylan moment

Dan Bern writes "Bob Dylan called me a “scurrilous little wretch with a hard-on for comedy”

I guess the ol' song-and-dance man was offended.

Springsteen and "The Ghost of Tom Joad"

"Celebrating Bruce Springsteen’s dark folk masterpiece
20 years of The Ghost Of Tom Joad"
by Peter Hart

A great deal of Springsteen background is offered here.



Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks 
Goin' someplace there's no goin' back 
Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge 

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge 
Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner 
Welcome to the new world order 
Families sleepin' in their cars in the Southwest 
No home no job no peace no rest 

The highway is alive tonight 
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes 
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light 
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad 

He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag 
Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag 
Waitin' for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last 
In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass 
Got a one-way ticket to the promised land 
You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand 
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock 
Bathin' in the city aqueduct 

The highway is alive tonight 
Where it's headed everybody knows 
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light 
Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad 

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy 
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries 
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air 
Look for me Mom I'll be there 
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand 
Or decent job or a helpin' hand 
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free 
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me." 

Well the highway is alive tonight 
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes 
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light 
With the ghost of old Tom Joad

Andrew McKnight

Here's an informative feature on Virginia-based folk singer Andrew McKnight.

More on Townes Van Zandt

American Icons: Townes Van Zandt