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The Musical Stories of James McMurtry

The Musical Stories of James McMurtry

In the deep pantheon of classic Texan singer/songwriters, a tradition that includes such titans as Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, and Steve Earle, raw talent and rootsy integrity have always been essential. Those qualities also describe singer/songwriter James McMurtry. On The Horses and the Hounds, his first album in seven years and his debut on New West Records, McMurtry mines what has become, for him, familiar thematic territory: a workingman’s hard-won truths sketched out in evocative song-stories that rail against some of America’s most sacred cows.

As the son of Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Larry McMurtry, James has storytelling in his blood, and it’s easy to picture James’ imagery-rich stories set to prose instead of song. Compressed character sketches abound, with resonant tales of truckers, hunters, cowboy vaqueros, and barroom musicians. Like fiction writers, he gives breath to each imagined life with empathy, heart, and detailed precision. But, as James explained during a recent phone interview where he spoke from his home in Lockhart, Texas, he’s a songwriter at heart. 

“Writing prose is a chore for me,” he said. “I don’t enjoy it. I wanted to go into songwriting. Kris Kristofferson was the first artist I identified with as a songwriter. I hadn’t given any thought to where songs came from before that. I wanted to be Johnny Cash when I grew up.

“The second live gig I saw was Kristofferson, and the band seemed to be having such a good time up there, I thought, I want to do that. He wasn’t country. Kris was something else. He was his own category, and so was Willie Nelson. They put them in the country section because you got to sell stuff, but they don’t really fit. Neither do I.”

Kristofferson’s own Texan roots and poetic songwriting foretold McMurtry’s, as does the uneasy genre classification.  McMurtry resists the “alt-country” label.

“I found out early on it’s dangerous to wear a hat of any kind or they’ll stick you in the country section,” he said. “Instead, Americana should be called what it is—skinny, scruffy white guys with guitars.” 

Recorded in L.A. at Jackson Browne’s studio, The Horses and the Hounds rocks with abundant electric guitar courtesy of Charlie Sexton and David Grissom. Standout veteran drummer, Kenny Aronoff, who also played on McMurtry’s debut record, Too Long in the Wasteland, drives the rhythm here. On the leadoff single, “Canola Fields,” a middle-aged couple reminisce about love lost and found. “Cashing in on a 30-year crush,” McMurtry sings, “You can’t be young and do that.” McMurtry’s flinty vocals blend the bittersweet past with the hope of what’s to come.  

With its gnarled guitar crunch, “Operation Never Mind” echoes one of his recurring motifs, our country’s faux-patriotism, and the ways we exploit that at the expense of soldiers’ sacrifice. “I try to illuminate what’s going on,” McMurtry explained. “I try to remind people that we do still have soldiers in harm’s way, and we’re not asking why. The first Gulf War had more post-action suicide deaths than combat deaths. Because war is business.”  

Though McMurtry’s songs are not autobiographical, his usual first-person point of view imbues them with intimacy and authenticity. Songs like “Jackie” and the title track depict the struggles of two truckers, one female and one male, whose lives on the endless road embody both rugged hardship and independence. McMurtry says about his songwriting process, “It’s like fiction—I hear a couple lines and a melody in my head, and I try to envision the character who might have said that. If I can find a character, I can find a story and work backwards that way. I get the words and music together, and keep building on that melody.”

 On the churning rocker, “If It Don’t Bleed,” McMurtry takes aim at the politicization of religion with cynical, cold-eyed defiance. “Save your prayers for yourself/I don’t care if you don’t look like me/I can share my bread and wine,” he sings in the chorus. Religious hypocrisy cuts to the grain of McMurtry’s slow-burn anger. “I’ve never been religious,” he explained. “My father was an atheist. But most people seem religious, and it gets more and more bothersome as religious language invades common, spoken English. Down here most of the store clerks tell you to have a blessed day. It’s like a secret handshake. You have to respond with the right inflection or they’ll know you’re not one of them. Politicians have always tried to out-Christian one another. It was a big deal having a black President, but it would be a bigger deal having an atheist president.” 

The Horses and the Hounds expands the range of McMurtry’s song palette and sharpens his truthteller instincts. This contrary troubadour balances rural concerns with urban ones while covering both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. With his gritty edge fully intact, James McMurtry continues to etch steely blue-collar portrayals with insightful understanding and dignity.

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