NOVEMBER 16, 2024 AT 8:00 PM

James McMurtry was raised mostly in Leesburg, Virginia. He began performing in his teens, writing bits and pieces, and started performing his own songs at a downtown beer garden while studying at the University of Arizona in Tucson. After traveling to Alaska and playing a few gigs, he returned to Texas and his father’s (Larry McMurtry) “little bitty ranch house crammed with 10,000 books”. After a time, he left for San Antonio, where he worked as a house painter, actor, bartender, and sometimes singer, performing at writers’ nights and open-mic events.

In 1987, McMurtry entered the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk songwriter contest, where he became one of six winners that year. Around this time he sent a demo tape to John Mellencamp. Mellencamp subsequently served as co-producer on McMurtry’s debut album, Too Long in the Wasteland, released in 1989. McMurtry also appeared on the soundtrack of the film Falling from Grace, working with Mellencamp, John Prine, Joe Ely and Dwight Yoakam in a “supergroup” called Buzzin’ Cousins.

McMurtry went on to release a total of 13 albums to date. His latest, The Horses and the Hounds, was released to critical acclaim and earned an Americana Music Award nomination.