James McMurtry at the Birchmere September 18 with Betty Soo
It was Thursday night at the Birchmere with a hint of fall already in the air and the quality music lovers filled the hall early. James McMurtry is touring on the heels of the release of his exceptional new album The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy and the crowd ducked into the table seating with palpable expectation for the pending catharsis.
Betty Soo opened and chatted with the audience in between songs making very human connections. After her opening song “Henry,” she cautioned the audience that would be her happiest song, and she talked about how her songs are primarily “Bummer Jams.” Later after she played “One Thing,” she described the way she would make her merch in her living room, and the cheeky bag that she had for sale outside in the merch room that said “BS loves BJs” (Betty Soo loves Bummer Jams). https://bettysoo.com/store She tackled depression in “100 Different Ways of Being Alone” with “It’s the brother who never writes anymore /The uncle you never heard mentioned before / The dad you didn’t know who left when you were born / A mom who leaves her child behind at the store / Life don’t work out like the plans you’d drawn.”
As Betty Soo’s set was winding down, she talked about her friend Curtis McMurtry, and then mentioned that drummer Daren Hess was joining her for a couple songs, and when the crowd looked up, there was James McMurtry in his light colored hat standing on stage with guitar as well as Daren behind the drums, and Betty Soo added with a smile “and this is Curtis’ dad.”
They played an energized (James McMurtry’s song) “Gulf Road” to the excited crowd, and then at the close of her set they performed Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” and there were a large percentage of folks in the audience wiping away tears.
After a short pause, James McMurtry and the band (Cornbread on bass, Tim Holt on guitar and accordion, and Daren Hess on drums) came on strong like a rock band with something to say with a rousing “Fuller Brush Man,” and all night, as Betty Soo joined several times on accordion and guitar as well, they exuded a tangible warmth. There were smiles from the band and once James twirled Betty Soo with her accordion.
Always, the band rocked with the bitter truth of human relationships, with songs like “Ft Walton Wake- Up Call” (“I keep losing my glasses”), “South Texas Lawman” (“he cheats on both his wives”) the solo acoustic “Blackberry Winter” (“I’ve got to get over the scare and tell you no”), “Choctaw Bingo” with its family reunion, and of course “Copper Canteen”‘s “don’t you be yellin’ at me while I’m cleaning my gun.”
To take off the heat, there were the sweetly loving songs “You Got to Me,” and “Canola Fields” with its beautiful “take my hand Marie, take a death grip on some part of me, keep me from drifting far out to sea or I’ll be lost out there.” There was the heavy exploration of the human mind in the context of Alzheimers in the stunning “The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy.”
James McMurtry’s songs invariably probe the stark side of human nature and the human experience, like a Cormac McCarthy novel. But unlike McCarthy’s, sometimes McMurtry’s characters bumble into something warmer and more humbling.
The crown jewel of the night was the much anticipated encore, a song that speaks to the current state of affairs like a searing hot knife of truth to the throat.
For this song, what came to mind watching James step to the very edge of the stage (crossing once to the other corner to cover both halves of the audience), all alone in the spotlight with his guitar, is that a skilled artist doesn’t need to explain their work. A deeply effective song speaks for itself on layers beneath the rational and verbal. With that abundantly in evidence, he sang “The Sons of the Second Sons” to us as we sat enraptured and sorrowful. It was beautiful and moving beyond words. One can wish that those not in attendance would hear it as well: “Sons of the second sons, products of genocide, polishing up our guns, living in double wides, sons of the peasantry, telling ourselves we’re free, sons of the pagan serfs, salt of the fucking earth, in search of a Ceasar.”
On that note, the stage went dark. The audience got what they had hoped for, and then some.
Happily, the merch area was crowded as people shopped on their way out.
Check for tour dates here: https://www.jamesmcmurtry.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Interview: James McMurtry on the State of the Union, Songwriting Process, Fishing, and Recent Tour with Jason Isbell
And enjoy some of his column with us, here: Wasteland Bait & Tackle: On Testing, by James McMurtry
Gulf Road (with Betty Soo)
James McMurtry set
Fuller Brush Man
Childish Things
Copper Canteen
You Got to Me
The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
Choctaw Bingo
Blackberry Winter (Solo Acoustic)
The Color of Night
South Texas Lawman
Sailing Away
Canola Fields
The Horses and the Hounds
Vaquero
No More Buffalo
Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call
Levelland
Too Long in the Wasteland
Encore:
Sons of the Second Sons
Fabulous.