Big news: the James McMurtry Band's digital album Blast from the Past is out today! The new and previously unreleased EP – featuring McMurtry on vocals and guitar, Ronnie Johnson on bass and Daren Hess on drums and Tim Holt on Guitar – was recorded live at Austin's Continental Club in 2006. McMurtry is donating 100% of sales to the iconic Continental Club to help cover mounting costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. McMurtry bookends the five-song Blast from the Past with his fan favorite “Rachel's Song” and Jon Dee Graham's classic “Laredo” with “St. Mary of the Woods,” “See the Elephant” and “Out Here in the Middle” between. Download your copy for $12 here: www.continentalclub.bandcamp.com. Long live the Continental Club and James McMurtry's legendary Wednesday night residency!!
SINGER-SONGWRITER JAMES MCMURTRY ON WHY JAMES MCMURTRY Has rescheduled HIS Summer TOUR DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC - ROLLING STONE CLICK HERE TO READ
Michael Hearne's Big Barn Dance Virtual Music Festival
Live Streaming this coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday night (Sept. 10-12) beginning at 6pm CDT / 5pm CDT each night!
How to watch:
Like and follow the Big Barn Dance Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/BigBarnDance
OR
Subscribe to the Big Barn Dance YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJD7T1jKkraxaAhhGKeUG6Q?view_as=subscriber
Visit either of these pages at the start time listed above to access the video stream.
All Fall Dates have been postponed to Spring 2021
James McMurtry
Tour
"The simple fact is that James McMurtry may be the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation."
- Stephen King
CLICK HERE for More of what James Has to Say...
Two Million
News
The Power of the Front Man
Whatever the front man says or does gives license to those in the crowd. A certain band used to play at the Continental Club in Austin, where my band and I regularly play when we’re home. When they played, a woman danced naked, or very nearly naked, behind a screen on which a light threw her shadow to the full view of the audience. Some of the staff that worked those shows are still working at the club. They tell me that during those shows some of the men in the audience became unusually and uncomfortably aggressive toward the women in the audience. I thought that was terrible. CLICK HERE for more
Continental Club Residency:
When he is not on the road, you can catch James McMurtry in Austin for his regular solo/acoustic show at the Continental Club Gallery every Tuesday. And the James McMurtry Band can be found each Wednesday performing their renowned regular midnight set at The Continental Club in Austin, Texas.
This pandemic would be a trial under any president. I fear it’s more of a trial under no president. No one is truly presiding over our government at this time...
JAMES McMURTRY FEATURED IN NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE COVER STORY
“25 SONGS THAT TELL US WHERE MUSIC IS GOING”
AUSTIN, Texas — The New York Times Magazine’s cover story “25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going” (Sunday, March 12) prominently features a four-page spread focusing on James McMurtry’s “Copper Canteen,” from his 2015 release Complicated Game. The author points directly to the song’s frequently quoted opening line as a representative passage in McMurtry's work: “Honey, don’t you be yelling at me while I’m cleaning my gun.” “Though that line about the gun got a big laugh when McMurtry played it in Dallas,” Ruth Graham writes, “I still don’t know whether to hear it as a joke or a threat, and McMurtry has never been one to offer the easy comfort of a straight answer.” CLICK HERE for more.