On the road in a van, singer-songwriter James McMurtry performs at the Bluebird April 2
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify Larry McMurtry wrote the script, but did not originate the story, for the movie starring John Mellencamp.
James McMurtry's songs, like his dad's novels, are fiction.
"They're not about me. They are about a character," he said recently.
The younger McMurtry, a singer/songwriter, is the son of American novelist, essayist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, author of "The Last Picture Show," "Terms of Endearment" and "Brokeback Mountain."
Larry McMurtry advised James on the distinction between writing songs and writing novels. "'It's a completely different muscle,'" James recalled his dad telling him years ago.
James McMurtry is bringing his folksy country sounds to Bloomington's Bluebird Nightclub April 2.
Movies and music collide, with help from John Mellencamp
Although father and son diverge artistically, with one writing and performing rock and the other having written Westerns, they convened in 1989. That's when James acted the role of Jimmy Rainey in four episodes of the Western miniseries "Lonesome Dove," based on Larry's novel.
According to Lloyd Farley, writing for collider.com, the show struck gold, attracting almost 40 million viewers. "(A)nd it was good," writes Farley, "having been nominated for 18 Emmy Awards and winning seven. Critics lauded everything from the cast, the scenery, up to the sheer majesty of the production itself."
Before acting, though, James McMurtry was one of six winners at the 1987 Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival New Folk songwriter contest.
At nearly the same time, local legend John Mellencamp was starring in a movie based on a story of his, in which he hired Larry McMurtry to write the script. James sent a demo tape to Mellencamp and it worked.
Afterward, Mellencamp co-produced James' debut album, "Too Long in the Wasteland" (1989). In addition, James was on the soundtrack of the film "Falling from Grace," working with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely and Dwight Yoakam in Buzzin' Cousins, a "supergroup" of famous musicians.
Today, James sticks mostly to writing songs and performing them with his band of four. Since touring is now the way rock musicians make their living — selling albums at a profit is long past — the four men have chosen a van over the widely used tour bus.
James McMurtry on the road with the band, in a van
On the road, it's just James and his other three band members, because, James said, they also serve as the crew. "Our income stream is the road.
"With a van, we each get our own hotel room at night," James said on the phone. "Buses don't work for us. With the van, we don't have to listen to each other's cellphone calls and TV shows. Nobody says much." And so far they have gotten along fine.
James said he, himself, doesn't use his cellphone much. But listen to his song "What's the Matter" and you'll have to wonder if he does use that phone on the road. It's a cogent jab at a couple in which one travels for work and the other has to stay home with the kids and do the chores.
In the song, a traveling man hesitates before answering his phone, knowing it's going to be his partner calling with yet another problem that he is way too far away to fix.
"I get to travel and you gotta stay homeYou're getting tired of raising them kids aloneI know it ain't easy, I know it ain't fairYou keep saying I never take you anywhereWant me to take you for an airplane rideWant me to take you to the seasideSorry, baby, but I can't right nowGonna have to make it up to you somehow"
Although James doesn't consider himself a protest-song writer per se, some of his songs have been seen as such and have gotten him noticed as an advocate for the working class and the marginalized (particularly drag queens, in James' "Red Dress").
"My main thing is rock and roll — and getting to the next gig," he said. When you listen to his "We Can't Make It here" you'll feel the frustration and, yes, protests:
"… Should I hate a people for the shade of their skinOr the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm inShould I hate 'em for having our jobs todayNo, I hate the men sent the jobs away"
James' most recent album, "The Horses and the Hounds," in the country genre, was released in August 2021 and is his 10th studio release. Its lead song, "Canola Fields," earned an Americana Music Award nomination. The album, recorded at Jackson Browne's California studio, ranked 81 on Metacritic. Reviewer Stephen Deuser, writing for Pitchfork, said: "McMurtry sounds more engaged here, more focused, and more generous to his hard-luck characters."
James said he won't be doing his beloved-by-fans red-dress routine, where he protests anti-drag laws.
"We've won that fight," he said.
He sounded pleased.
If you go
WHAT: James McMurtry
WHEN: 8 p.m. April 2
WHERE: Bluebird Nightclub, 216 N. Walnut St.
TICKETS: $25, for ages 21 and older, go online to https://tinyurl.com/ryznam45
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Singer-songwriter James McMurtry plays at Bloomington's Bluebird
