JAMES McMURTRY

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THE BLACK DOG AND THE WANDERING BOY (2025)

Album Credits & Lyrics HERE
Album Announcement Press Release HERE

"One of America's greatest living songwriters" - Rolling Stone

"The consistency of such evocative, specific details has earned McMurtry the prestigious designation of songwriter's songwriter. He is the type of performer other musicians revere, cite as an influence, and love to collaborate with..." - Texas Monthly

"Masterful set from the distinguished folk-blues Texan" 9/10 - Uncut Magazine.

**** - MOJO Magazine

"Fearless stuff" - The Observer

"It is virtually impossible to denounce McMurtry or his writing talents, and, in that sense, The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is one of his strongest efforts in years." - Far Out

"The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is a collection of songs that continues to cement the reality that McMurtry is, without a doubt, one of the greatest living songwriters today." - Taste of Country

"James McMurtry gives us the protest album we need... in a time when the ugly American specters of racism, machismo, and lack of accountability are screaming back, we need more salt-of-the-earth musicians like McMurtry, not only to tell things as they are, but to write the protest music this current movement is sorely lacking." - SPIN

”One of the most alluring storytellers country music has seen in the last few decades…” - Glide Magazine

"...solidifying McMurtry as one of this generation's most unflinchingly potent and powerfully erudite recording artists." - American Songwriter

"This is the kind of multi-layered songwriting that has put McMurtry at the pinnacle of the craft according to many of his peers." - Saving Country Music

"...a great storyteller in the mold of a modern-day Woody Guthrie." - Riff Magazine

"James McMurtry returns with masterful storytelling & truth laying on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy." - Glide Magazine

"McMurtry continues to prove that few songwriters—inside or outside Americana—can match his lyrical precision. Like John Prine at his sharpest or Guy Clark at his most plainspoken, McMurtry writes with clarity, compassion, and a healthy dose of bite. The Black Dog finds him at the peak of his powers—wiser, wearier, and unflinchingly honest." - Americana Highways

" A supremely insightful and inventive storyteller, McMurtry teases vivid worlds out of small details, setting them to arrangements that have the elements of Americana but sound too sly and smart for such a general category... this is roots rock at its most cathartic." - Americana UK

"...there is so much to digest in the music of James McMurtry and this new album is filled with ample proof of his many gifts and talent." - Lonesome Highway

Press Highlights:
Rolling Stone: The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy Premiere / Album Announcement HERE
Texas Monthly: Feature HERE
Garden & Gun: Full Album Premiere and Q&A HERE
American Songwriter: Feature HERE
Pitchfork: Album Announcement HERE
Record Store Day Podcast: Episode HERE
SPIN: Album Review HERE
Saving Country Music: Album Review HERE
Holler: “Sailing Away” Premiere HERE
The Observer: Album Review HERE
Taste of Country: Feature HERE
Far Out: Album Review HERE
PopMatters: Album Review HERE
Glide Magazine: Album Review HERE
Americana Highways: Album Review HERE
Americana UK: Album Review HERE
Lonesome Highway: Album Review HERE
Louder Than War: Album Review HERE
The 13th Floor: Album Review HERE
Spectrum Culture: Live Review HERE
Riff Magazine: Live Review HERE