First of all, I HATE corporate country. Absolutely detest it. But I LOVE the fringes of country music. Alt-country like much of Cracker's stuff, blues-country like much of Delbert McClinton's stuff, soul-country like much of Lyle Lovett's stuff, rocking folk-country like John Hiatt. The lines are so blurred the categories are meaningless. And that's a good thing.James McMurtry sees frequent rotation in my iPod. He's another unclassifiable artist, I'd probably say country leaning folk-rock. But why do I feel the need to categorize things? Most haven't heard much of James McMurtry, here's a good mog review of James' song You Can't Make It Here Anymore, a must listen for those with a social conscience.But some of McMurtry's music is as fun as any Todd Snider tune, with a much darker humorous tone. The best example of this is his song “Choctaw Bingo”, an eight and a half minute romp through a family reunion in Oklahoma. He takes a swipe at everything in this song – racism, incest, sex, drugs, moonshining, loan sharking, fishing, guns, reservation cigarettes, mom & pop business – all done with an interesting insiders tongue-in–cheek disdain. It’s like he wants to join the dark side of the culture, but can’t quite cross that line. Maybe if the incest thing works out for him…If you’re from that part of the country you’ll be listening with awe of this boy’s knowledge of the lay of the land. If you’re not, and have a little redneck in you, you’ll recognize most of the references anyway. I will give up one obscure reference, Bois D’Arc is one of the hardest woods you can find. When you’re talking abour a Bois D’Arc fence post as a wood reference, you’re talking hard and gnarly. A pipe rail gate is a gate meant to keep livestock in a fence. It’s made from heavy duty, larger diameter steel pipe and is HEAVY. As a youngster in that area you’ll bounce out hundreds of trucks to swing open pipe rail gates. Well, if you were to imagine a pipe rail gate hung from a post of bois D’ Arc wood you’d have the ultimate hard-on. I shall say no more.Give it a listen, your life will be forever richer for having heard this.