"Well, I guess you ain't never seen anything as big as this country."
"Yes. A couple of oceans."
William Wyler's The Big Country (1958) is one of those westerns about men proving themselves in the unforgiving and sublime conditions of the American southwest. Gregory Peck, a dandy sea captain from back east, rides into town to claim his bride and immediately finds himself embroiled in a raging family feud over "the Big Muddy," a tract of land that offers the only source of water available to both families' thousands of head of cattle. It's a beautifully photographed film that goes out of its way -- most notoriously in the big fist fight between Peck and Charlton Heston -- to dwarf man by the surrounding landscape. Consider the latest batch of Songs of the Moment music to listen to while riding through the big country.
I first heard Richard Shindell more than a year ago when a friend posted "Che Guevara T-Shirt" on his blog, and I immediately fell in love with Shindell's voice. "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" seemed an obvious choice for this batch of tunes. His song is set in Louisiana, but, as far as I'm concerned, that's entirely beside the point.
I've been meaning to post "If I Was in El Dorado" and "All Systems Red" for a couple weeks now -- ever since I saw Oakley Hall and Calexico give what was surely the best concert I'll see all year. I'd been listening to Oakley Hall's second album for several months and liked it just fine, but seeing them live made me a believer. Singer/guitarists Pat Sullivan and Rachel Cox are working a kind of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris vibe, and the band plays roots rock that manages to sound both contemporary and like something that could have emerged -- wobbily, through a sweet-smelling haze -- from California in the early-'70s. They sure as hell don't sound like a band from Brooklyn.
When Oakley Hall left the stage, I assumed it would be one of those times when the opening act outshined the headliner, but then, well, Calexico played a song or two. Oakley Hall's sloppiness is part of its charm. Their show was like a loud, rocking, living room sing-a-long. Calexico were loud and rocking, too, but their years of touring were obvious in every note. Joey Burns called "All Systems Red" a song that is "by its nature both quiet . . . and loud," and then he laughed to himself and began strumming. Five minutes later, the Bijou Theatre was floating in noise. Amazing.
As for the last song, I wanted to include something from Beck's The Information, the album I'm listening to most often right now, and "Soldier Jane" struck me as the song I'd most like to take with me to the desert.
Enjoy.
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