McMurtry is a great songwriter and a really good rocker.

I have all James McMurtry's albums, have seen him several times over various releases, and this is still the acme for me. This album continues to resonate after all these years. When my Ipod hits a song from this album in its shuffle I invariably turn the volume up. This is a beautiful album, but one that does not take a cheery view of life. These are not songs that will make you smile or brighten your day. McMurtry's world is populated with the desperate, the failed, and those just hanging on. The songs "Down Across the Delaware", "Levelland", "One More Winter", and "Where'd You Hide the Body" are so lovely and so bleak. And if you are ever driving across west Texas, this is part of the soundtrack you need to play (see also Terry Allen and Jimmie Dale Gilmore). Give a listen to a great singer-songwriter and his best album (so far).

That about sums up McMurtry's angst and maybe why he writes such soulful lyrics. Levelland might be McMurtry's best song ever. The lyrics are outstanding. Other standout songs by McMurtry are 'No More Buffalo' and 'Peter Pan' on 'It Had To Happen'. This is a must have CD for someone getting into McMurtry and one of the best to start with for someone new to McMurtry. You might want to get this second after getting 'It Had To Happen'.

Great CD. Having a hard time keeping it out of the car and home CD player. Good song writer and good tunes. I definately recommend if you're into any kind of alt. country/folk music.

If you were the son of the guy who wrote "The Last Picture Show" (father Larry McMurtry), what would you do? Paint houses, build houses, tend the bar, and generally pretend like you're not your father's son so that you don't have to live up to the expectations. But lucky for us, the younger McMurtry eventually got around to writing songs in his late 20s, and he had a hell of a lot to say. Thankfully he took the high road and didn't pre-judge every last podunk town and oddball hick in the Texas outlands that were his home. Rather, he told it like he saw it, maybe because he himself had stayed "too long in the wasteland" (ironically the title of his 1988 debut album.) By the time McMurtry hit his mid-30s, both his songwriting and guitar chops had matured to the point that I think this album can be favorably compared to Bob Dylan's opus "Blood on the Tracks" (also written in his mid-30s.) Yes, I say favorably, because "Where'd You Hide the Body" has absolutely no filler, whereas "Blood on the Tracks" suffered from the inclusion of "Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" and out-of-tune instruments on some tracks. The title track here is indeed the standout, but the songwriting quality is outstanding throughout. Plus, McMurtry's got the dusty voice (and the gritty guitar, a Fender VI electric) to match the content.

James McMurtry inherited the storytelling gene from his father, novelist Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove", "Dead Man's Walk", "Terms of Endearment", etc.). This album features some of his most interesting and catchy work, as he sings about love, heartbreak, childhood, and drunkenness. Highly recommended.

This album starts out with six of the finest examples of songwriting that you are bound to encounter, anywhere. The next seven (including the instumental) fall just a notch below the openers in terms of quality.

With a knack for illuminating the tiniest details, James McMurtry has the ability to boil a short story down into a song. The songs themselves, detail lives in small towns and on the margins of society with empathy, but without romanticizing them into cliches. They are just like mini-documentaries delivered in the authors weary, been there-seen that voice.

Don Dixon's production is inventive and does an outstanding job of throwing these tales into high relief. If you admire anyone who can be considered a songwriter's songwriter, and are unfamiliar with James McMurtry's work, Start here.

If you thought "Candyland" was a good offering by this Texas singer/songwriter, then you are in for a treat with "Where'd You Hide The Body". There is a miniature movie in every song. Each song has its' own atmosphere and is worth a return visit again and again. McMurtry has a spectacular ability to write stories of characters who's positions in life seem hopeless and remote, but they almost don't seem to mind. Standout tracks are "Off & Running", "Rachel's Song", "Levelland" and the title track.

Where'd You Hide the Body is a spell binding and intriguing album. James McMurtry hit his stride with this release and his guitar work, using a myriad of alternative tunings is impressive. I have been surprised at the longevity of the CD, as time goes on each track reveals new secrets in song and lyric. His lyrics and melodies stay with you day in and out, and come to provide an anthem for the thoughtful. James explores the seemingly hum-drum and passers-by of life and ends up revealing the beauty of life and people of rural America. Wonderful work and the single most important cd I own.

The highlight of an excellent set is "Levelland" JM's greatest song by some way, a heartfelt lyric set to a memorable tune,it encapsulates in 5 minutes everything that is best about his music. The rest of the album while not living up to this standard is extremely enjoyable, particularly the title track, the ebullient "Rayolight" and the well produced "Fuller Brush man". JM deserves a wide audience and it's a shame that this record did not sell as well as it should.

I've never understood how Lyle Lovett can be so popular and yet James McMurty can be so obscure. James can write rings around Lyle, and he is at least as good a singer. His third album is a classic, highlighted by the great folk rock Americana tracks "Down Across the Delware" and "Levelland." If Pete Seger had grown up listening to the Rolling Stones, he might have sounded like James McMurty. A classic album.

. . . but this is as close as you're likely to come. In all seriousness, I put *Body* on my personal shortlist of all-but-perfect albums, alongside Lyle Lovett's *Joshua Judges Ruth,* Patty Griffin's *Living With Ghosts,* Freedy Johnston's *Can You Fly* . . . even Dylan's *Blood on the Tracks* is an apt comparison. Several of the songs on this record -- "Levelland," "Down Across the Delaware," "Melinda," "Iolanthe" -- are, in my estimation, as good as any songs ever written by anybody, anywhere.

I don't want to regurgitate the praises offered by previous reviewers; they're all true, and all warranted. Instead, I'd like to use this space to draw particular attention to "Rachel's Song," which is one of the most powerful and affecting things I know. Written and sung from the perspective of an abandoned woman -- addressing in absentia the man who left her -- it's unlike anything else on the record: elsewhere McMurtry is sardonically funny and basically generous of spirit; this, however, is a long, level stare into the abyss -- a depiction of a cold, bottomless, almost inarticulate hatred that's so utterly pure as to consume or negate everything outside of itself. Absolutely stunning; I've never heard anything else remotely like it. To quote Jorge Luis Borges (on Robert Graves) -- this fable deserves to be very ancient.

I found this to be one of James's best efforts in his fine catalog of music. James sing's with heartfelt conviction and some highlights are "Levelland" "Fuller Brush Man" and "Melinda". As a singer songwriter, he has an uncanny ability to take you too the places in his songs. A perfect discription of that would be "Levelland" here we are taken to the flatlands of where ever throughout the south. You can allmost taste the dust as it plays. Anyone who likes the singer songwriter stamp of heartland music will enjoy this record, and his others. As a listener I have enjoyed all his recordings and I feel his music has a place among the great's of our time. In closing, pic it up, sit back and enjoy. I think you will feel better for it.

"King James" rules me, and has done so since I first heard this CD 2 years ago. He is a cynical redneck who just speaks to me, and to anyone with any intelligence at all. He is even better live. That he is not played on the radio constantly is a sad statement about American music today. All of his CD's are amazing. Buy them all and listen to them on repeat for months at a time. He is brilliant and underrated, but if that fuels his creative fire, so be it, it's worth it.

This is his best work as far as I am concerned, although all of his work ranks higher than most song weavers. His real world lyrics compete strongly with those of one of my other favorite musical poets of the day, Jeff Holmes of the "Floating Men". Both of these gents take you back to things that you remember in life with exceptional detail. The opening track, Iolanthe, is awesome and all the cuts grow on you with listening. From " mama had no sense with cars, she drove a sunbeam and drove it hard... on Fuller Brush Man to,..."I probably ought to quit my drinkin, but I don't believe I will." Lord knows I can relate to the Title track of "Where'd you hide the body?" This was my anthem during my divorce last year. Buy this if you live in the real world, you won't regret it!

This CD truely refects the Talent of Texas singer /songwtiter James McMurtry. Most of the songs keep getting better with every listen. This is one of my Favorites in the McMurtry collection. All of his other releases are well worth the purchase price as well.

James McMurtry, known for for slow mellow tunes on the life in West Texas. Mr. Murtry has a gift for writting "songs that tell a story" and in this cd he gives his best effort in making the listeners ease into his tales. This album has the most "pop" any of his others have had (mainly because this was his last effort with those weesels at Sony) but after listening to songs like "Fuller Brush Man", and "Rayolight" you can feel McMurtry's greatness!

The depth of the lyrics and melodies on this album are amazing. I first heard James McMurtry on KGSR (Austin radio station) and went out to buy this album. Strong from beginning to end, though strangely the title song is the only one wearing thin. I particularly like the moody "Lost In The Back Yard," the restrospective "Fuller Brush Man," and the intelligence of "Rachel's Song." Good stuff.

I haven't heard these albums but I have "Candyland" and this guy really puts lyrics to music in a moving way. No unecessary comparisons to Dylan are needed, this guy is in a class of his own. No fancy chording but very clean guitar work, crisp percussion and excellent overall production. No rough edges. I'd love to play rhythm guitar for his group. No one I know has heard of him, the local radio stations NEVER play him. I think I'll pick up on some of his newer material.

This is another one of those guys you wonder why they aren't on every radio station all the time instead of some of the other gutless folk music out there. "Leveland" is both poignant and tells the whole sick story of modern agriculture in FOUR minutes!

Whoa! Who is this guy?! and WHY isn't he, like, one of the most known people who does what he does?! Okay, so I went and then got everything else he's done. This one is FLAWLESS! What a poet! What a storyteller! What a musician! What a fantastic collection of songs!!!! The title track should very well go down in history: WAY CLEVER and unforgettable.