James McMurtry

James McMurtry

James McMurtry has long been hailed as one of America’s great narrative songwriters — a craftsman whose characters feel so lived-in, so sharply drawn, they seem to walk right out of the speakers. On his eleventh album, The Black Dog & the Wandering Boy, McMurtry travels deeper into that terrain, sketching sheriffs hunting quail on horseback, mechanics counting the cost of love, and troubled souls haunted by hallucinations of a black dog and a wandering child.

These songs — funny, sad, tender, and unsparing — are built from scraps of family history, fragments of poems, and the imagination of a writer who follows the words where they lead. Produced by longtime collaborator Don Dixon and performed with his trusted band (Cornbread, Tim Holt, Daren Hess, and BettySoo), the album feels immediate and alive, as if McMurtry is writing the stories in real time.

From the rumbling title track to covers of Jon Dee Graham and Kris Kristofferson, The Black Dog & the Wandering Boy adds a powerful new chapter to a career that has influenced a generation of songwriters, including Jason Isbell and Sarah Jarosz.

A night with James McMurtry is more than a concert — it’s an encounter with one of America’s most essential storytellers.

"It is virtually impossible to denounce McMurtry or his writing talents, and, in that sense, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is one of his strongest efforts in years." - Far Out

"The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is a collection of songs that continues to cement the reality that McMurtry is, without a doubt, one of the greatest living songwriters today." - Taste of Country

"James McMurtry gives us the protest album we need... in a time when the ugly American specters of racism, machismo, and lack of accountability are screaming back, we need more salt-of-the-earth musicians like McMurtry, not only to tell things as they are, but to write the protest music this current movement is sorely lacking." - SPIN

BettySoo

BettySoo’s vocal prowess is a thing of wonder. A world-class instrument of deft phrasing and purity, a voice that knows when to hold back and when to dive in. At her own live shows, taking a verse onstage with friends or singing harmonies in sessions with Austin’s finest, BettySoo sings with consummate loveliness and self-assurance. A voice that knows the roots of American music inside and out; coming from a most unexpected place – a diminutive Korean-American with a deceptively girl-next-door demeanor. Then the performance reels you in.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Fairfield Theatre Company