Today (June 20), James McMurtry released his highly anticipated new album, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy. As longtime fans have come to expect, the celebrated songwriter paints vivid pictures and spins memorable yarns throughout the ten-track collection.
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Ahead of today’s release, McMurtry sat down with American Songwriter to talk about the new album. He revealed the inspiration behind the album’s title track, how he has changed his touring strategy over the years, and more.
James McMurtry on Writing the New Album
While James McMurtry isn’t the kind of artist you’d say makes the same album over and over again, he does have a tried-and-true method of writing for a project.
“I start with a couple of lines of melody and just see where it goes. I get the seed for a song, just a couple of lines with a melody. If it’s good enough to keep me up at night, I’ll finish it,” McMurtry explains. “But, I guess the whole inspiration for the record is fear. Your club draw starts falling off, so you’ve got to put out a record so that people will come to the shows,” he adds.
It may seem that he’s it’s an easy-going process. However, he does his best work when time starts ticking away. “I do my homework at the last minute. I finish most of my songs after I’ve already got the studio time booked.”
Choosing Covers for The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
James McMurtry included two covers on this album. It opens with “Laredo (Small Dark Something)” originally recorded by Jon Dee Graham. The album closes with Kris Kristofferson’s “Broken Freedom Song.” During our chat, he revealed how those songs made it on the tracklist.
“We recorded about 13 songs for this record. Two of the best just happened to be covers,” McMurtry says.
“‘Laredo’ was an accident. We were at a studio, and The Hole in the Wall was doing a benefit for Jon Dee. He had a bunch of medical bills. So, they were doing a big tribute show for John Dee Graham. We used to play ‘Laredo’ in the set, but we hadn’t in a while,” he recalls. “And we had all of our gear in the studio. We said, ‘We need to rehearse this for Friday night. While we’re at it, we might as well record it. We’ve already got the sound up. So, we did it and we liked it.”
The other cover on the album was no accident, though. It was one great American songwriter paying tribute to another. “Then, ‘Broken Freedom Song’ came in a late session. I think it was in the fall. It was after Kristofferson died,” McMurtry recalls. “I just always liked this song. I had an eight-string baritone in a drop tuning, and I liked the way the song sounded in that tuning, so I just cut it to a click track. Then, Don Dixon added bass and drums in the studio.”
James McMurtry’s Late Father, Larry McMurtry, Inspired the Title Track
James McMurtry knew his father, Larry McMurtry, suffered from dementia before he passed in 2024. However, he didn’t realize that he dealt with persistent hallucinations. His stepmother, Faye, told him about a pair of figures that wear a near-constant presence, and it inspired him to write the album’s title track.
“I learned about Larry’s hallucinations. I didn’t know about that until he died. Faye asked me, ‘Did he ever talk to you about the black dog and the wandering boy?’ And I said, ‘No, but I’m gonna use that,’” McMurtry recalls. “He slipped into dementia in his later years. Even when he took the meds, those two still hung around. The character in the song is obviously not him. It’s some young alchie. I just used those hallucinations and applied them to a fictional character,” he explains.
“Then, there was the line about watching the squares go to work. My ex-bass player used to hang out with Keith Ferguson every now and then. One day, they were sitting out on the porch, and the sun was rising. Keith said, ‘Yeah, I like to sit up and watch the squares go to work.’ I couldn’t let that one go by.”
Changing Times Call for Changing Strategies
At the hear of things, James McMurtry is still going about writing, recording, and touring the same way he has since the late 1980s. However, the rise of downloads and streaming music has shifted the purpose of his tours and albums. Unlike some artists, he doesn’t tour to support records. His albums serve as advertisements for his near-constant touring.
“Mostly what I do is geared toward a live performance because that’s the revenue stream for us and has been for a long time, even before Napster,” he explains.
“We don’t really set up a tour for a record anymore. Back in the day, you’d set up a tour to promote a record, and the record would get pushed back, and you’d just be out on the road with no record. It happened all the time. It’s better to have a record out as advertising for the shows,” McMurtry says. However, this wasn’t always the case.
“Back in the ’80s and early ’90s, it was the other way around. You were touring in support of a record, hoping to generate enough record sales to generate royalties,” he recalls. “That didn’t really happen for us. Our budgets were already too high. It took me a while to learn to make records cheap. Then, about the time artist royalties started rolling in, downloads really took off. There just weren’t any more record sales,” he adds.
The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is Available to stream across all digital platforms. You can also purchase a physical copy via New West Records.
Featured Image by Mary Keating-Bruton
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