McMurtry goes live again

The Horses and The Hound

Parents often seem larger than life to their kids, but talk about a large shadow. James McMurtry's father, Larry wrote novels that were both literary and popular (Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment). James' mother also wrote books and taught college English. So it's pretty clear where all this was headed when James got his first guitar in the late 60s at age seven - the Texas boy was raised to sing with heart and paint with words. Signed to Columbia, the ...

Complicated Game

The first album by James McMurtry in six years proves that some simply get better with age. And it opens with a gorgeous, deliberate performance, "Copper Canteen," and a line about cleaning his gun before hunting season comes to a close. From there, McMurtry looks back at his youth and the changing world today "before the pension kicks in." Thankfully, the singer never falters from that high standard he set for himself on the leadoff tune. "You Got To Me" sounds as ...

Live in Europe

The only weakness of James McMurtry's "Live In Europe" is its brevity, clocking in at just over 40 minutes. Recorded in The Netherlands and Germany, McMurtry focuses primarily on songs from his excellent 2008 release "Just Us Kids." Amongst the stronger tracks are Just Us Kids, a somewhat fatalistic view on aging ("Not so skinny, not so free/ Not so many as we used to be") and You'd A Thought, which also examines the aging process ("There's so ...