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Mac Leaphart (from the album Music City Joke available as a self-release) (by Brian Rock)
Mac Leaphart explores the humor and heartache of life’s misadventures on his fourth album, Music City Joke. Although a native South Carolinian now living in Nashville, Mac Leaphart sounds for all the world like a Texas troubadour. Part Guy Clark and part Jerry Jeff Walker, he wrestles with life’s absurdities on a combination of grace, wit, and a poet’s insight. “El Paso Kid” sets the tone with the opening line, ‘she got knocked up and kept on drinking...’. Clearly, the expectant child is facing uphill odds before he even takes his first breath. With sepia fiddle and acoustic guitar tones, Mac Leaphart paints the picture of Buddy, the bastard kid from El Paso. But, like Guy Clark, Leaphart insinuates more than he tells. In fact, he leaves off the story when Buddy turns eighteen, just as the past seems poised to collide with the present. You’re left to decide for yourself what decisions Buddy is likely to make and what kind of life he will experience. The only hint Leaphart gives us is that ‘there’s a special place in Heaven for those who scrap for a fighting chance’. Like a psychological Rorschach test or a great work of art, the reaction of the viewer becomes more important than the object being viewed. Mac Leaphart again challenges our ingrained worldviews on “Window from the Sky”. An extended metaphor about a bird accidentally trapped in a house; the bird is unable to find the open door as it continues to fly into the closed windows. He speaks for many of us who find ourselves trapped in glass prisons of our own making when he sings, ‘it’s never easy as it seems to find your wings and fly’. With deft turns of phrase and poignant touches of steel guitar, Leaphart turns his poet’s perspective on many of the passing moments that make up a life. On, “Every Day” he bemoans the daily grind of making a living. “Division Street” shows how the relentless pursuit of pleasure ironically leads to pain; as ‘the road to rock bottom is paved by new lows’. He finds the humor in being a lonely guitar yearning for a talented hand to strum him in “The Ballad of Bob Yamaha or a Simple Plea in C Major”. He contemplates self-abuse and self-righteousness in “Blame on the Bottle”. And with heartbreaking insight, he ponders how his ex’s new lover can’t see “The Same Thing” in her that he once did. But Mac Leaphart shows he can be as much Ronnie Van Zandt as he can Townes Van Zandt when he plugs in and pumps up the pace on “That Train”, “Honey, Shake!” and “Music City Joke.” This uptempo trio straddles the line between Outlaw Country and Southern Rock as he pays homage to hoping for a better life, enjoying the moment, and chasing a dream. The latter of which is a semi-biographical, tongue-in-cheek look at the music business. Mocking the common belief that songwriting is easy (or perhaps his own naiveite,) he sings about his early attempts at writing hits, where ‘every song I got done, they’d say, ‘son, you better try again’. Apparently, his persistence has paid off, as Music City Joke is no joke. It’s real deal Americana with heart and humor. In the end, the joke may be on Music City as Mac Leaphart outshines most of Nashville’s current crop of ‘stars’. (by Brian Rock) Listen and buy the music of Mac Leaphart from AMAZON For more info, check out the Mac Leaphart website
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