James McMurtry

Biography

James McMurtry (born March 18, 1962, in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American rock and folk rock/Americana singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and occasional actor (Daisy Miller, Lonesome Dove, and narrator of Ghost Town: 24 Hours in Terlingua). He performs with veteran bandmates Daren Hess, Cornbread and Tim Holt.
His father, novelist Larry McMurtry, gave him his first guitar at age seven. His mother, an English professor, taught him how to play it: "My mother taught me three chords and the rest I just stole as I went along. I learned everything by ear or by watching people."

Biography

McMurtry spent his first seven years in Fort Worth but was raised mostly in Leesburg, Virginia. He attended the Woodberry Forest School, Orange, Virginia. He began performing in his teens, writing bits and pieces. He started performing his own songs at a downtown beer garden while studying English and Spanish at the University of Arizona in Tucson. After traveling to Alaska and playing a few gigs, he returned to Texas and his father's "little bitty ranch house crammed with 10,000 books". After a time, he left for San Antonio, where he worked as a house painter, actor, bartender, and sometimes singer, performing at writers' nights and open-mic events.
In 1987, a friend in San Antonio suggested McMurtry enter the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter contest; he became one of six winners that year. Also around this time John Mellencamp was starring in a film based on a script by McMurtry's father, which gave McMurtry the opportunity to send a demo tape to Mellencamp. Mellencamp subsequently served as co-producer on McMurtry's debut album, Too Long in the Wasteland×Too Long in the Wasteland22 August 1989 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Painting by Numbers4:502Terry3:343Shining Eyes4:134Outskirts4:125Song for a Deck Hand’s Daughter3:356I’m Not from Here4:157Too Long in the Wasteland4:048Crazy Wind4:119Poor Lost Soul3:3310Angeline4:0811Talkin’ at the Texaco4:11 (1989). McMurtry also appeared on the soundtrack of the film Falling from Grace, working with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely and Dwight Yoakam in a "supergroup" called Buzzin' Cousins.
McMurtry released follow-up albums Candyland×Candyland2 June 1992 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Where’s Johnny4:452Vague Directions4:463Hands Like Rain4:494Safe Side4:115Candyland4:186Don’t Waste Away3:217Good Life3:508Save Yourself4:579Storekeeper3:4610Dusty Pages3:48 (1992) and Where'd You Hide the Body (1995). 1997 saw the release of "It Had to Happen×It Had to Happen1997 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Paris4:382Peter Pan6:313For All I Know3:584No More Buffalo7:19512 O’Clock Whistle6:066Sixty Acres3:367Be With Me6:568Wild Man From Borneo5:079Stancliff’s Lament5:2610Jaws of Life5:35" which included a cover of "Wild Man from Borneo" originally done by Kinky Friedman and "Sixty Acres"; a rollicking tune about a dead grandma and the events afterwards.
Walk Between the Raindrops followed in 1998 and 2002 brought St. Mary of the Woods. In April 2004, McMurtry released a tour album called Live in Aught-Three×Live in Aught-Three2004 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Saint Mary of the Woods6:462Fraulein O.3:553Red Dress5:004No More Buffalo6:52560 Acres4:346Rachel's Song6:037Out Here in the Middle5:118Choctaw Bingo8:479Lights of Cheyenne6:3810Levelland5:3711Max's Theorem1:4212I'm Not From Here5:0813Too Long in the Wasteland7:5514Rex's Blues3:47. "Choctaw Bingo", one of McMurtry's most popular songs, is featured on both St. Mary of the Woods and Live in Aught-Three.
In 2005, McMurtry released his first studio album in three years. Childish Things again received high critical praise, winning the song and album of the year at the 5th Annual Americana Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. The album was perhaps McMurtry at his most political, as his working-class anthem "We Can't Make It Here" included direct criticism of George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and Wal-Mart. The music critic Robert Christgau ranked "We Can't Make It Here" as the best song of the 2000s.
McMurtry released his follow-up album to Childish Things×Childish Things6 September 2005 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1See the Elephant4:242Childish Things4:343We Can't Make It Here7:054Slew Foot4:345Bad Enough4:196Restless3:547Memorial Day4:168Six Year Drought5:139Old Part of Town5:1710Charlemagne's Home Town5:5211Pocatello3:0312Holiday6:37 in April 2008. Just Us Kids continued with the previous album's political themes and included the song "Cheney's Toy," McMurtry's most direct criticism of George W. Bush so far. Like "We Can't Make It Here" from the previous album, "Cheney's Toy" was made available as a free Internet download.
McMurtry's ninth album, Complicated Game×Complicated Game24 February 2015 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Copper Canteen4:382You Got to Me5:243Ain't Got a Place2:424She Loves Me3:025How'm I Gonna Find You Now4:046These Things I've Come to Know3:187Deaver's Crossing4:018Carlisle's Haul7:149Forgotten Coast3:3510South Dakota5:0311Long Island Sound6:4712Cutter5:41 was released on February 24, 2015 on an L.A. record label also named Complicated Game. The album achieved critical acclaim, scoring 87 on Metacritic. Lead single "How’m I Gonna Find You Now" and other tracks such as album opener "Copper Canteen" have become staples in the McMurtry canon.
Cold and Bitter Tears: The Songs of Ted Hawkins, released in late 2015 on Austin-based Eight 30 Records, includes McMurtry's take on the late busker's song "Big Things". Additionally, Dreamer: A Tribute to Kent Finlay, released in early 2016 (also on Eight 30 Records), features McMurtry's version of Finlay's "Comfort's Just a Rifle Shot Away."
McMurtry contributed his rendition of Adam Carroll's "Screen Door" to Highway Prayer: A Tribute to Adam Carroll (Eight 30 Records, 2016) as well as "Grandpa's Promise" to the satirical album Floater: A Tribute to the Tributes to Gary Floater (Eight 30 Records, 2018). Also in 2018 McMurtry performed at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.
During restrictions on touring and live music imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, McMurtry started streaming several live acoustic performances a week on Facebook and YouTube. After using this platform to premiere new songs including "If It Don't Bleed", a new album, The Horses and the Hounds×The Horses and the Hounds20 August 2021 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Canola Fields4:502If It Don’t Bleed3:503Operation Never Mind4:344Jackie5:085Decent Man4:496Vaquero4:417The Horses and the Hounds4:388Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call5:179What’s the Matter4:2710Blackberry Winter5:09, was announced on June 9, 2021 and released on August 20. Lead track "Canola Fields" was released to streaming services at the time of the announcement and would go on to get an Americana Music Award nomination. The album, produced by longtime collaborator Russ Hogarth and recorded at Jackson Browne's Santa Monica Groove Masters studio, was reviewed positively, scoring an 81 on Metacritic. Pitchfork reviewer Stephen Deusner said of the record: "McMurtry sounds more engaged here, more focused, and more generous to his hard-luck characters."
McMurtry lives in Lockhart, Texas, 30 miles south of Austin, Texas where, until recently, he and The Heartless Bastards regularly played a midnight set at The Continental Club on Wednesday nights after Jon Dee Graham, another Austin roots rock musician.
McMurtry's son, Curtis, is also a singer-songwriter and has performed with his father.

Media

Video of James McMurtry
Video of James Mcmurtry. "Poor Lost Soul" from Too Long in the Wasteland