Thanks to Not Lamer Dave Bundy for turning me onto this suprise release!
There`s so much here, that`s hard to grab and grasp by listening to the
soundbites, bu we will give it a go! Sir Bundy is an journalist for
Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis and he offers up this assessment
of City Of Champions. "Not that I`m a communist, but Americana
isn`t generally the description of my favorite music. I think it`s the
whole thing about how everyone loves Wilco so much and I never got that
into them. I like The Jayhawks and some others, but I`m probably not
going to gravitate to that music if I want to sit down and listen to an
entire album. But I stumbled across this guy, Harvey Barham, last night.
The website below is hilarious now that I figured out it wasn`t for the
real City of Champions, just the album. But it`s cleverly done. The In
the News section is really links to the songs and their lyrics. The
headline is a summary of the song, not its title. It is only 9 songs, but
the lyrics are so evocative of life in a small town. And the hooks are
incredibly powerful. You`ve got to check out Shocking Affair Exposed,
the best song ever written about an Oedipus complex gone horribly awry,
and Ray of Sunshine Appears, a wonderfully upbeat album closer. But
every song here is incredible. I`m a news guy, so I don`t use exclamation
points haphazardly. But this rocks! It`s one of those albums that you
just have to listen to all at once, every song in order. Each song is
great by itself. But the whole thing is greater than even the significant
sum of its parts. I stayed up late last night listening to it over and
over again. And as proof of how good it was, when I woke my wife up at 2
a.m. and forced my iPod earbuds on her, she listened and wasn`t even mad
I woke her up when the song was over." "8 out of 10. The alt.country
slices of life on My Sweet Tragedy and Main Street are great songs
with hook filled choruses and colorful lyrics. And this is where Barham
excels, my favorite song here Some Are Just Happy is a sharp critique
of Texas life sung with sweetness and smooth guitar. The weary ballad
Nothin` I Do is a total resignation of everything, even admitting
"you`re tired of this tune" which is a bit of Wilco bleakness and ELO
violins that recall Mr. Kingdom a little. I kinda dug this one a lot
too - it`s so damn honest. The latter half of this album also recalls The
Honeydogs, as the songs get more into the town`s disintegration (Tired
Of This Town), but it ends with the slightly hopeful Little One. Every
song here is well written and the arrangements are superb. The albums
dark undercurrent can get oppressive at times, but that`s the general
theme here. The website is impressive too, as the city of Duncanville, TX
is layed out in detail with sample streaming tracks for each news item
listed. You have to remember this is about an album about life in this
small Texas community. It could be any town in America now, even yours.
So listen up."- PowerPopAHolic Blog.
Get on board - City Of Champtions, while not for everyone here, IS
something that many of you will revel in the discovery of! VERY Highly
Recommended!
 Song #1 - mp3
Song #2 - mp3
Song #3 - mp3
Song #4 - mp3 | 
