Masterclass Songwriter James McMurtry Prepares 1st Album in 4 Years

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photo: Mary Keating-Bruton


“James McMurtry” is all that really should need to be said for any music fan worth their salt to immediately pay rapt attention, and await further information. This world-class songwriter’s songwriter is an apex predator of the written word put to song who everyone should have in their musical ethos, and looming large. In this case, the further information it’s that McMurtry is preparing his first album in four years called The Black Dog and The Wandering Boy out June 20th, and the title track is at your fingertips now.

The 10-song set will of course be full of the incredible poetry McMurtry has come to be known for over the last 35 years, with age only imparting more wisdom and meaning behind his works. But this new album also includes a lot of personal history that for many of us, was previously unknown. Most McMurtry fans probably do know that his father was landmark American novelist Larry McMurtry, who if nothing else, imparted Lonesome Dove to the world.

What many of us didn’t know is that while growing up, counterculture icon Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters would pay visits to the McMurtry house. Apparently it was documented in Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Even more crazy, at one point Kesey sketched a picture of a young James McMurtry. It became the cover for the new album. Ken’s widow Faye ended up marrying Larry McMurtry later in life. The title track is inspired by McMurtry’s father’s visions of a black dog and a wandering boy that he would see as he suffered from dementia.


For McMurtry, the rest of the inspiration for the album was elemental. “You follow the words where they lead. If you can get a character, maybe you can get a story,” he explains. “If you can set it to a verse-chorus structure, maybe you can get a song. A song can come from anywhere, but the main inspiration is fear. Specifically fear of irrelevance. If you don’t have songs, you don’t have a record. If you don’t have a record, you don’t have a tour. You gotta keep putting out work.” 

This particular work involves Don Dixon as producer, who also produced McMurtry’s third album Where’d You Hide the Body? from 1995. It also includes appearances by Sarah Jarosz, Charlie Sexton, Bonnie Whitmore, Bukka Allen, and others. McMurtry’s backing band of BettySoo on accordion & backing vocals, Cornbread on bass, Tim Holt on guitar, and Daren Hess on drums are also on the album.

“A couple of years ago I quit producing myself. I felt like I was repeating myself methodologically and stylistically,” McMurtry says. Though eight of the songs are originals, the album is bookened by cover songs, or more like tributes. It starts off with the song “Laredo (Small Dark Something)” by Jon Dee Graham, and ends with Kris Kristofferson’s “Broken Freedom Song.”

“Kris was one of my major influences as a child,” McMurtry says. “He was the first person that I recognized as a songwriter. I hadn’t really thought about where songs come from, but I started listening to Kristofferson as a songwriter and thinking, How do you do this? Kris had just passed not too long before we recorded ‘Broken Freedom Song.’” 

The Black Dog and The Wandering Boy is now available for pre-save/pre-order.

TRACK LIST:

1. Laredo (Small Dark Something)
2. South Texas Lawman
3. The Color of Night
4. Pinocchio in Vegas
5. Annie
6. The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
7. Back to Coeur d’Alene
8. Sons of the Second Sons
9. Sailing Away
10. Broken Freedom Song





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