James McMurtry's gritty songs pack a punch
Making it in the music business often requires one big break, and singer-songwriter James McMurtry got one of the biggest.
It was the late 1980s. Heartland rocker John Mellencamp, then at the height of his fame, heard one of McMurtry's demo tapes and called him up.
“He said, ‘Do you want to make a record?' I certainly wasn't going to say no to a question like that,” McMurtry said.
It helped, of course, that McMurtry is the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, and that Mellencamp and the elder McMurtry had been working on a movie project together.
Still, those kinds of connections can open the door, but they don't necessarily keep you in the room. In the 20 years since the release of his first record, 1989's “Too Long in the Wasteland,” James McMurtry has amassed a striking body of work and earned a reputation as one of America's most witty and insightful songwriters.
He will showcase that talent in four solo shows coming up in the Chicago area this weekend, including a stop on Friday, Jan. 14, in Rosemont.
His most recent records are among his most successful. “Childish Things,” released in 2005 on Compadre Records, became one of the biggest sellers of McMurtry's career, and its 2008 follow-up, “Just Us Kids” (Lightning Rod Records), earned raves. He continues to be championed by everyone from Mellencamp to Stephen King to Patterson Hood, lead singer of the alt-country band Drive-By Truckers.
“I know how lucky I am just to still be doing this,” the 48-year-old Texan said in a phone interview. “I'm grateful that people still seem to be responding to my music. Things turned a corner with ‘Childish Things,' and that's great. It's tough out there these days.”
McMurtry grew up on a steady diet of outlaw country artists like Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. Like them, McMurtry combines bluesy, rootsy grooves with lyrics that paint vivid pictures of struggling everyday people. He delivers the lyrics in a distinctive deadpan drone that sounds a bit like a country-fried version of Lou Reed.
Lately, McMurtry has waded into more political waters. The “Childish Things” record included the acclaimed track “We Can't Make it Here,” an indictment of the Bush administration that created a sensation when he released it online. “Just Us Kids” includes the song “Cheney's Toy,” another jab at the former president.
“I never set out to be a political songwriter, I just write what I'm inspired to,” McMurtry said. “Recently, politics has been part of that, but it's not my main focus.”
McMurtry's local shows this weekend will be stripped-down and acoustic.
“I like doing the acoustic shows because they let me do different kinds of songs,” he said. “I even get to play a 12-string guitar, which is something I rarely do with a full band. It's just too much to keep track of.”
McMurtry's first record came out on a major label long before anyone had heard of the Internet. Today, he records on an indie label at a time when digital distribution has thrown the industry into disarray.
McMurtry greets those changes with a shrug.
“In some ways I miss the old days,” he said. “Having a major label support you is huge. Now, I have to work much harder to get the word out and promote shows and so on. But I love the team and label (Lightning Rod) I work with now, and we seem to be reaching people, so I have no reason to complain. What I do is so much better than any other job I could get.”
<b>James McMurtry</b>
The singer performs four shows over three nights in the Chicago area:
<b>Friday, Jan. 14:</b> 8:30 p.m. in the Montrose Room inside the InterContinental Chicago O'Hare Hotel, 5300 N. River Road, Rosemont. $24. Call (847) 447-4022 or go to <a href="http://www.montroseroom.com" target="_blank">montroseroom.com</a>
<b>Saturday, Jan. 15:</b> 7 and 10 p.m. at the Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. $22. Call (773) 728-6000 or go to <a href="http://www.oldtownschool.org" target="_blank">oldtownschool.org</a>
<b>Sunday, Jan. 16:</b> 8 p.m. at Evanston SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston. $20 to $32. Call (847) 492-8860 or go to <a href="http://www.evanstonspace.com" target="_blank">evanstonspace.com</a>