“One of America’s greatest living songwriters” – Rolling Stone
“James McMurtry writes songs filled with characters so real that you’re sure they’re going to climb out of the speakers and look you in the eyes.” —VOICE OF AMERICA
The worldwide acclaimed singer-songwriter from Texas, James McMurtry is coming to Newcastle for the first time in over a decade
He recently toured with Americana all-star Jason Isbell, who says “James has that rare gift of being able to make a listener laugh out loud at one line and choke up at the next. I don’t think anybody writes better lyrics.”
McMurtry spins stories with a poet’s pen and a painter’s precision. His vibrant vignettes and story songs have turned heads for a quarter century. Based in Austin Texas , McMurtry tours year round and consistently throws down unparalleled powerhouse performances. The Washington Post notes: “Much attention is paid to James McMurtry’s lyrics and rightfully so: He creates a novel’s worth of emotion and experience in four minutes of blisteringly stark couplets. What gets overlooked, however, is that he’s an accomplished rock guitar player …
James has a brand new album out in the summer ….”The Black Dog & The Wandering Boy”
The album, steeped in McMurtry’s rough-hewn Americana, also includes a nod to one of McMurtry’s inspirations with a cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Broken Freedom Song.” “Kris was one of my major influences as a child,” McMurtry said. “He was the first person that I recognised as a songwriter. I hadn’t really thought about where songs come from, but I started listening to Kristofferson as a songwriter and thinking, ‘How do you do this?’”
He learned well for ” “As the years pile on, James McMurtry sings with ever more authority and deserved cynical grace…With each album, (he) finds more to say and a stubborn, uncompromising way to say it.” —iTUNES