Dana Cooper

The Ghost of Tucumcari

Self-released

Dana Cooper is treating The Ghost of Tucumcari as a celebration of 50 years in the music business and these luminaries – Lyle Lovett, Shake Russell, Hayes Carll, Susan Gibson, Libby Koch, Mando Saena, Darden Smith, David Starr, and Gillian Tuite all participate. Another key aspect of this record is co-production and multiple instrumental backing from Dave Coleman. And, of course, there’s the stellar songwriting of Cooper behind it all. Ah, one quibble before we plunge in, do we really need another cover of “This Land Is Your Land?” The others are either penned by or co-written by Cooper. One must admit that the title itself is captivating.  The town in northern New Mexico named Tucumcari is known through the Little Feat chestnut “Willin’” and has the same sort of ring to it as Ireland’s Tipperary, it too the subject of a few songs.

This writer has dubbed a few songs as ‘classic pandemic” songs. Cooper’s “Start the World Again” (co-written with Shannon Hughes and with Libby Koch on vocals) joins that select group. Take this verse for example – “A tiny bug knocked us to our knees/We locked ourselves up, hid away the keys/Afraid to love, afraid even to breathe/Too Scared to hope, too stunned to grieve.” Those words sum up that year and half so succinctly. The title track is inspired by an interesting story. Cooper doesn’t treat Tucumcari as an imaginary place or for its alliterative song value. He was actually staying there one night, haunted by this image of an old, wounded tomcat. The song is already garnering attention as a single and video as it features Lyle Lovett on vocals. (“No cruel hand can reach him/The ghost of Tucumcari”)

“Children of a Common Mother” (co-written with Shake Russell, who sings along with Libby Koch) is an empathetic, rather idealistic plea for unity. In a related way “What Is Love Waiting For” (penned with Doug Biggers and with Mando Saenz on vocals) plies the same subject with its series of rhetorical questions. These are all rendered in a folk-rock vein with guitar and string heavy backing from Cooper, Coleman, and Josh Leo. The intimate “Song For Myself” is buoyed by harmonies from Gillian Tuite but the lyrics bog down with several repetitive refrains along the likes on “what you want you want you want you want…” The rocking “Fallen Star” is a rather gripping, vivid narrative about a stripper and “the Shriner from Detroit” that never managed to pull themselves up. A choir of vocalists – Hayes Carll, Susan Gibson, Shake Russell, and David Starr all chime in.  Cooper takes “Goin’ Down Judah” by himself vocally, blowing his harmonica like an impassioned bluesman in this raveup. Blues fans certainly know the overcovered song “Going Down Slow.” This has no relation to that one, and quite frankly is a much better song.

Standout “Rocked in a Country Cradle” (written with Josh Leo with Gibson and Russell singing) is chock full of great couplets about a kid upsetting his parents with his penchant for early rock n’ roll – “Mama loved to hear Your Cheatin’ Heart/ I couldn’t wait to hear ‘em Rock Around the Clock” and “Dad said that ain’t music , not like I Walk the Line/I couldn’t hear him I was headed for a Hard Day’s Night.”  Even the “Moon shinin’ in my eyes” is a clever touch. “Beauty and Ruin” (co-written with David Starr who sings along with Mando Saenz) is heart rending breakup song enriched by harmonies. Lyle Lovett returns for the folk ballad “Needless to Say” as one yearns for one that he’s never stopped loving despite growing apart. Lovett puts searing emotion into the tune in these lines – “In the space of the moon/Love is casually give/Love’s a casualty driven/From the face of the moon.”  Only the best songwriters write like that. Cooper is one of them.

• Jim Hynes

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