Black Dog And The Wandering Boy

Description

Upon the death of his father in 2021, James McMurtry rummaged through his belongings and discovered a pencil sketch of himself as a child. "I knew it was me, but I didn't know who had drawn it. I had to ask my stepmother, and she told me it looked like the work of Ken Kesey in the 60s. The Merry Pranksters, Kesey's traveling band of hippie activists and creators, often stopped by to visit Larry McMurtry, his wife Faye, and their very young son James. He held onto this drawing while working on a new album, The Black Dog & the Wandering Boy, his eleventh. It is a collection of roughly hewn story songs and richly drawn character sketches that have elements of Americana – rolling guitars, barroom harmonies, traces of banjo and harmonica – but sound too sly and clever for such a generalized category. Often funny and sad in the same breath, it adds a new chapter to a long career that has seen a recent resurgence as young songwriters like Sarah Jarosz (who plays on the new album) and Jason Isbell (who took McMurtry on tour) cite him as a formative influence. McMurtry's characters face similar awakenings, though theirs are harder, sadder, and come at the end of life rather than the beginning. Sometimes they find salvations, like a calling or a good memory; sometimes they drown, like that lawyer from South Texas. Even the songwriter himself doesn't always know what will happen or what will inspire him. "You follow the lyrics where they lead. If you can have a character, maybe you can have a story. If you can set it to a verse-chorus structure, maybe you can get a song."