James Grauerholz - Life’s Too Good to Keep (2024) Hi-Res

Those who know Lawrence, KS-based Grauerholz (now 70) as the manager, bibliographer, editor, literary executor and companion of famed writer/artist William S. Burroughs from 1974-97, may not be aware that he’s also an adept musician and songwriter, recording since the late ‘60s. As Zoom singer and Life’s Too Good to Keep assembler Mark Henning explains in the album’s bio: “Over the years, James has witnessed and been an important figure in many extraordinary musical eras. He has been referred to as the ‘Zelig of Punk Rock,’ having been part of a small coterie who helped kick-start the CBGB/Max’s Kansas City scene in NYC. He was there for the Midwestern Country-Rock explosion of the early 1970s. He was there for the AOR singer-songwriter movement of the late 1970s, mixing his songs with Boz Skaggs in San Francisco. He was at the Hacienda in Manchester where Factory Records and New Order were birthed.” This enjoyable, surprisingly consistent 21-song collection spanning 30 years is thus a welcome introduction.

A few songs, like the live cover of The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood’s 1970 “Captain Bobby Stout,” the punky “You’re Living in a Dream World,” and the poppier “I Just Want to See You Again,” show his full-band rock chops. Most, though, are just him and a ringing acoustic, some with drums and occasional backing singers. Adopting a conversational, matter-of-fact style, Grauerholz manages to weave vivid narratives, whether describing his humdrum and isolated, workaday Missouri life in “Rainy Kansas City,” recounting discreet searches for a gay, college-aged lover in “Someone in Cleveland,” or chronicling an ill-fated trip to Hong Kong with a deceptive friend in “The Walled City of Kowloon.”

On the lighter side, Grauerholz takes us through his early, formative years of playing music on “Heaven’s Radio,” while he good-naturedly pokes fun at trendy, unoriginal city scenesters on “Posertown.” But with a friendly, plainspoken voice that resembles John Doe and Evan Dando, and ruminative, sincere lyrics, each of them — also try “Be That Way,” “New York City Lullabye,” the Velvet Underground “Sweet Jane”-tinged “The Boulder Song,” “Falling Away,” or the piano-backed “Spring is Just Around the Corner” — is inviting and poignant.