Texas storytelling royalty comes to Union Chapel! James McMurtry brings The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy to London on Tuesday 13 October
Texas storytelling royalty comes to Union Chapel! James McMurtry brings The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy to London on Tuesday 13 October, joined by BettySoo
A master of sharply drawn characters and wry, world-weary Americana, McMurtry returns with songs that are funny, haunting and deeply human - adding another chapter to a career that continues to influence a new generation
Get Tickets https://tinyurl.com/DMPmcmurtry
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https://youtu.be/L-D824LHti4 www.jamesmcmurtry.com
Presented by dmpuk.com and Decor Records
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James McMurtry The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
A Lone Star sheriff hunts quail on horseback and keeps a secret second familyA mechanic lies among the spare parts on the floor of his garage and wonders if he can afford to keep his girlfriendA troubled man sees hallucinations of a black dog and a wandering boy and hums “Weird Al” songs in his headThese are some of the strange and richly drawn characters who inhabit James McMurtry’s eleventh album, The Black Dog and the Wandering BoyA supremely insightful and inventive storyteller, he teases vivid worlds out of small details, setting them to arrangements that have the elements of Americana-rolling guitars, barroom harmonies, traces of banjo and harmonica-but sound too sly and smart for such a general categoryFunny and sad often in the same breath, the album adds a new chapter to a long career that has enjoyed a resurgence as young songwriters like Sarah Jarosz and Jason Isbell cite him as a formative influenceAs varied as they are, these new story-songs find inspiration in scraps from his family’s past: a stray sketch, an old poem by a family friend, the hallucinations experienced by his father, the writer Larry McMurtry“It’s something I do all the time,” he says, “but usually I draw from my own scraps.” As any good writer will do, McMurtry collects little ideas and hangs on to them for years, sometimes even decades“South Texas Lawman” grew out of a line from a poem by a friend of the McMurtry clan, T.DHobartDriven by gravelly guitars and a loose rhythm section, it’s a careful study of a man whose feelings of obsolescence motivate him to take drastic action in the final verse“Dwight’d stay at our house way back in the ‘70s, when we lived in VirginiaDuring one visit he wrote this poem about his father’s attitude toward South TexasHe wrote it down on cardboard, and I came across it recentlyThere was a line about hunting quail on horseback, and that was the seed of the songI’ve lost the poem since then.” The rumbling title track, a kind of squirrelly blues, features two mysterious figures who appear only to those slipping from reality, yet it’s never grim nor especially despairingInstead, McMurtry namechecks a “Weird Al” deep cut and depicts a tortured soul who doesn’t have to work a nine-to-fiveHe finds a defiant humor in the situation at odds with the gravity of the source material“The title of the album and that song comes from my stepmother, FayeAfter my dad passed, she asked me if he ever talked to me about his hallucinationsHe’d gone into dementia for a while before he died, but hadn’t mentioned to me anything about seeing thingsShe told me his favorite hallucinations
were the black dog and the wandering boyI took them and applied them to a fictional character.” Soon McMurtry had enough of these songs for a new record“It happened like all my records happenedIt’d been too long since I’d had a record that the press could write about and get people to come out to my showsIt was time.” What was different this time was the presence of his old friend Don Dixon, who produced McMurtry’s third album, Where You’d Hide the Body?, back in 1995“A couple of years ago I quit producing myselfI felt like I was repeating myself methodologically and stylisticallyI needed to go back to producer school, so I brought in CC Adcock for Complicated Game, and then Ross Hogarth did The Horses and the HoundsIt seemed natural to revisit MrDixon’s homeroomI wanted to learn some of what he’s learned over the last thirty years.” During sessions at Wire Recording in Austin, McMurtry observed firsthand Dixon’s grasp of digital recording technology as well as his instinctual approach to tracking“What Don’s really good at is being able to sense when it’s happeningHe can hear when it’s going downIf I’m producing myself and I don’t have him, I have to do three takes and then go in and listen to themListening to those three takes can take about 15 minutesSo Dixon’s ability to know when it’s happening is crucial, because it can cut 15 minutes out of the dayThat can really save a session, because you only have so many hours in the day and only so much energy
YouTube: https://go.evvnt.com/3488538-2?pid=269
Artists: James McMurtry, BettySoo
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Wondering where to stay that's close to Union Chapel? We've teamed up with Booking.com to provide the best room rates for hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs near the James Mcmurtry Bettysoo At Union Chapel London event in London.
onefinestay - Islington apartments
A unique collection of fashionable properties, onefinestay has different locations around upscale Islington. Camden Market and the leafy Georgian squares of Barnsbury and Canonbury are within easy reach..
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A unique collection of fashionable properties, onefinestay has different locations around upscale Islington. Camden Market and the leafy Georgian squares of Barnsbury and Canonbury are within easy reach..
Angel Suite Accommodation
Located 400 metres from Islington, Angel Suite Accommodation offers accommodation in London. Guests benefit from balcony. Free WiFi is featured throughout the property.
London Islington Apartments
London Islington Apartments offers accommodation in London. Islington is 600 metres away. Some units also have a kitchen, equipped with an oven and microwave.
onefinestay - Highbury private
onefinestay - Highbury apartments offers accommodation in Highbury, 6 km from London and 36 km from Windsor. The unit is 19 km from Croydon. There is a seating area and a kitchen equipped with a dishwasher.
Islington Chic Apartment
Islington Chic Apartment offers accommodation in London, 600 metres from Islington and 1.7 km from Hoxton Square. The apartment is 1.
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