{"id":3390,"date":"2016-12-12T20:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T20:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/?p=3390"},"modified":"2016-12-25T18:30:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T18:30:19","slug":"james-mcmurtry-continental-club-mucky-duck-houston-tx-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2016\/12\/12\/james-mcmurtry-continental-club-mucky-duck-houston-tx-review\/","title":{"rendered":"James McMurtry – Continental Club \/ Mucky Duck – Houston, TX Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen<\/p>\n

James McMurtry at the Houston Continental Club- 12\/3\/2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dsc02381\"<\/a>I showed up at the Continental Club Saturday night wearing a T-Shirt bearing the outline of Lonesome Dove character, Woodrow Call and a quote regarding rude behavior in a man. It was a Larry McMurtry shirt, but a McMurtry shirt just the same. I was certain that irony would have brought a wry grin to James McMurtry\u2019s face. Of course, he never noticed the shirt, in that he had bigger concerns in putting on a fine rock and roll show.<\/p>\n

James McMurtry does a weekly show at Austin\u2019s Continental Club along with John Dee Graham and this Houston show is a traveling sample of that extravaganza. In Graham\u2019s place as opening act, Houston provided entertainment by Charlie and the Regrets. They put down some smooth voiced honky-tonk sounds flavored with some heavy lap steel ruminations and rocking telecaster solos. Several of the songs had to do with prison and Charlie Harrison did a little plug for KPFT\u2019s prison show, that lets family members of convicts go on the air to let them hear their voices. The set closed with a boisterous rendition of Brad Boyer\u2019s \u201cMean When I Drink\u201d and Regret\u2019s original \u201cBaytown\u201d.<\/p>\n

Introduced by the barbecue vendor, McMurtry took the stage doing \u201cBayou Tortous\u201d backed by drummer, Daren Hess, and bassist, Cornbread. They continued as a trio through \u201cRed Dress\u201d, \u201cWhat\u2019s the Matter Now\u201d and \u201cJust Us Kids\u201d, rocking those epic marathon guitar solos that are McMurtry\u2019s trademark.<\/p>\n

Utility man, Tim Holt, joined the band on stage to kick off a series of tunes from \u201cComplicated Game\u201d, starting with a very rocking version of \u201cHow\u2019m I Gonna Find You Now?\u201d.\u00a0 They rolled on through \u201cCopper Canteen\u201d, \u201cYou Got to Me\u201d and \u201cI Ain\u2019t Got a Place\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Continental crowd was the usual milling, flirting, yakety group that frequents the spot on Main Street and yet James McMurtry grabbed them back again with his classic \u201cChoctaw Bingo\u201d, wringing every bit of energy from that tune before going solo acoustic for \u201cThese Things I\u2019ve Come to Know\u201d.<\/p>\n

The acoustic part (possibly a plug for his solo show at the Duck the following week) was limited to a single number. This is after all the Continental! The band rejoined the stage to push through the rest of the set with JM classics, like \u201cPainting by Numbers\u201d, \u201cEvery Little Bit Counts\u201d, \u201cChildish Things\u201d and \u201cFor All I Know\u201d. He continued with \u201cRestless\u201d before introducing \u201cLevelland\u201d as a Robert Earl Keen song that McMurtry had written. The evening ended with a rousing version of \u201cToo Long in the Wasteland\u201d.<\/p>\n

In all honesty, this was a James McMurtry show (with slight variations) that I have seen several times over my lifetime. I am not saying that I was disappointed. Far from it! The man has superior lyrics put to quality tunes delivered with talent and enthusiasm. Dylan rocked no better. If you have never caught his shows\u2026or if you have, McMurtry is a rare treat for discerning Americana rockers. I am, however looking forward to next week\u2019s acoustic show\u2026just for a change in perspective.<\/p>\n

James McMurtry Alone and Acoustic at the Mucky Duck<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dsc02425\"<\/a>I took my place at the bar in McGonigel\u2019s Mucky Duck for the early show of James McMurtry\u2019s acoustic gig on last Saturday night. I\u2019ve been to a number of electric McMurtry show, but have not made one of these before and I\u2019m actually pretty fired up. McMurtry took the stage and did some fine tuning while Tim Holt sat down at the sound board.<\/p>\n

The show kicked off with the poetic \u201cSt. Mary of the Woods\u201d and rolled into that theme to jealousy, \u201cRed Dress\u201d. McMurtry put down his six string and moved to twelve string to perform \u201cCopper Canteen\u201d off of his latest compilation. The Mucky Duck venue is quieter than the Continental Club or the Satellite Lounge, or any other place that I\u2019ve seen McMurtry perform. Hence, his lyrics come to the forefront and he has written some great one-liners. \u201cRachel\u2019s Song\u201d features the line \u201cIf anyone can claim they\u2019re alright, then so can I\u201d. I will continue to pick out and present some of my favorite McMurtry lines through this article.<\/p>\n

One thing that became apparent rather early in the show was that James McMurtry flat out owns the twelve string guitar. I am used to watching guitarists pick up the twelve string for one or two songs, knit their brows and stare down at the fretboard carefully watching finger placement. Not McMurtry! He looked just as comfortable sporting the twelve as he does playing with six strings.<\/p>\n

The performance rolled on flowing through \u201cYou Got to Me\u201d and \u201cI Ain\u2019t Got a Place\u201d to a surprisingly effective acoustic \u201cChoctaw Bingo\u201d. The contrast between tonight\u2019s show and that at the Continental last week bubbled up when the line about getting between his cousins rolled out, the audience didn\u2019t blink, while last week the line was met with hoots and hollers.<\/p>\n

Next was \u201cHurricane Party\u201d with the perplexing line, \u201cI don\u2019t want another drink, I only want the last one again.\u201d McMurtry continued to rock the acoustic with \u201cHow\u2019m I Gonna Find You Now?\u201d and \u201cLong Island Sound\u201d from the latest album \u201cComplicated Game\u201d. He moved back to the six string for \u201cLevelland\u201d and \u201cCarlisle\u2019s Haul\u201d featuring the line, \u201cAt the end of the rope, there\u2019s a little more rope, most times.\u201d<\/p>\n

There followed a rare performance of \u201cThe Lights of Cheyenne\u201d, this being my first time hearing the song, although it was featured on \u201cLive in Aught Three\u201d. It became clear to me that James McMurtry sings for his dinner as he performed \u201cNo More Buffalo\u201d and \u201cRestless\u201d.<\/p>\n

The show was ended with the song that first pulled me in as a James McMurtry fan, \u201cPeter Pan\u201d. For some very obvious reasons, the lines, \u201cI can\u2019t grow up, because I\u2019m much too old now. I guess I really did it this time, Maw\u201d spoke to me. There are some things in life, you find, that you just can\u2019t undo.<\/p>\n

After years of seeing James McMurtry in a loud electric venue, this pensive and lively experience is one that I would recommend to any real McMurtry fan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen James McMurtry at the Houston Continental Club- 12\/3\/2016 I showed up at the Continental Club Saturday night wearing a T-Shirt bearing the outline of Lonesome Dove character, Woodrow Call and a quote regarding rude behavior in a man. It was a Larry McMurtry shirt, but a McMurtry shirt just the same…. <\/p>\n

Read More<\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concert-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3393,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions\/3393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}