Winding stories melded together with melody as James McMurtry took the Proud Larry’s stage Thursday night to perform songs from his new album “The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy,” as well as old crowd favorites.
McMurtry’s lyrics told stories that were complex, teetering between heart-wrenching and humorous at times. While singing, he played guitar in such a skillful and natural way that it seemed he may have been born with the instrument in hand.
The artist’s talents as a lyricist and musician comes to no surprise for those familiar with his career. He has been producing music consistently since his 1989 debut album “Too Long in the Wasteland,” and he was recently called “one of America’s greatest living songwriters” by Rolling Stone.
Showing just as much skill in their musicianship, McMurtry was backed by his usual band consisting of Tim Holt on guitar, Cornbread on bass and Daren Hess on drums. Often, Cornbread also joined in on vocals.
Though there were a few exceptions, McMurtry and his band performed with an upbeat tempo that kept the crowd moving for the majority of their time on stage. It could be easy to forget the complexities of the lyrics that accompany the songs while grooving to the beat.
Between songs, McMurtry was a man of few words, but his music was filled with enough imaginative storytelling to make up for it. Each of the songs on his new album were inspired by something from his family’s past and given an expanded meaning through McMurtry’s lyrics.
The title track of the album, for instance, was based off of a recurring hallucination that McMurtry’s father Larry McMurtry, the famous author of “Lonesome Dove,” had before he passed away.
As he prepared to perform the song “Black Dog and the Wandering Boy” he said that the song was based on “one of my favorite hallucinations.”
Before McMurtry took the stage, BettySoo, a folk singer-songwriter, performed what she called “bummer jams” that told tragic stories of young love and love lost.
BettySoo’s raw vocal talent mixed with her sombering lyrics and slow cadence was a contrast to the upbeat sound that much of McMurtry’s performance took, but the contrast only highlighted each of their talents.
Blending their talents, BettySoo and McMurtry played three songs before she left the stage. During these songs, BettySoo took the lead, while McMurtry supported her on guitar and vocals.
As he and his band left the stage at the end of the night, the childlike feeling of wanting to hear another story was left behind, prompting lovers of music and tales alike to delve into McMurtry’s discography.
