Gary Myrick, a Texan who has been living in Southern California for many years, has been making music for a long time. He was in his first band at the age of 18, and made his first album in 1980. Since then, he hasn’t wanted for work, making a number of albums on his own and with various groups including the cult band Havana 3 AM, and recording and touring with the likes of Jackson Browne, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren and the Eagles.
On Waltz of the Scarecrow King Myrick inserts his off-kilter pop sensibilities into the singer-songwriter genre, with highly entertaining results.
Myrick is an impressive picker, and he produces beautiful music with an ancient Washburn classical and a classic Dobro. He’s joined here on a dozen tracks by three parts of a string quartet — violin, viola and bass — with his guitar filling the role of the cello. Myrick co-produced the record with the Grammy-winning engineer Tchad Blake, known for his collaborations with Mitchell Froom on many albums by Richard Thompson and Los Lobos, among others.
His vocals, in the upper end of the baritone register, are without affectation except for a tendency to veer upward on the last note of a phrase, which gives some of the songs a marked old-timey feel.
The songs themselves are mostly minor key, bluesy numbers, exploring the darker side of fame, celebrity, life on the road and, of course, relationships.
The opening track, “Honk if You Love Jesus,” is the strongest and most memorable. It and several others make me think Myrick has spent a good bit of time with the records of fellow-Texan T Bone Burnett, the Grammy-winning producer of the “Oh Brother” phenomenon. Whatever his influences, he’s learned well how to marry music with lyrics, and how to set a mood. Myrick also obviously loves to play with the language, and has a lot of fun with songs like “Honk,” “The Ghost of Elvis” and “Hometown Waltz.”
Two of the 12 tracks are instrumentals, the aptly titled “Haunting of White Rock Lake,” and the hymn-like “Saints of the Mojave.” (The latter isn’t technically an instrumental, since Myrick hums a melody to the guitar accompaniment.) The interplay between guitars and the other strings is particularly impressive on these tunes.
The lyrics occasionally seem labored, particularly in the folky “Fame is Dangerous” and the atmospheric ballad, “Gary’s Lament.” But Myrick shows he isn’t afraid to take chances on this record, and the risks are usually rewarded. Scarecrow King, an unusual and personal take on the guy-with-a-guitar genre, is an intimate record, professionally made.
(Tangible, 2001)
