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James McMurtry: The Black Dog Weird Al songs in his head. These are some of the strange and richly drawn characters who inhabit James McMurtrys eleventh album, The Black Dog rolling guitars, barroom harmonies, traces of banjo and harmonicabut sound too sly and smart for such a general category. Funny 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 influence.As varied as they are, these new story-songs find inspiration in scraps from his familys past: a stray sketch, an old poem by a family friend, the hallucinations experienced by his father, the writer Larry McMurtry. Its 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.D. Hobart. Driven by gravelly guitars and a loose rhythm section, its a careful study of a man whose feelings of obsolescence motivate him to take drastic action in the final verse. Dwightd stay atour house way back in the 70s, when we lived in Virginia. During one visit he wrote this poem about his fathers attitude toward South Texas. He wrote it down on cardboard, and I came across it recently. There was a line about hunting quail on horseback, and that was the seed of the song. Ive lost the poem since then.BettySooIts the voice that gets you first. BettySoo may well have the most gorgeous voice in Texas if not in all contemporary folk its purity and strength can be downright devastating. ACOUSTIC GUITAR BettySoos vocal prowess is a thing of wonder. A world-class instrument of deft phrasing and purity, a voice that knows when to hold back and when to dive in. At her own live shows, taking a verse onstage with friends or singing harmonies in sessions with Austins finest, BettySoo sings with consummate loveliness and self-assurance. A voice that knows the roots of American music inside and out; coming from a most unexpected place a diminutive Korean-American with a deceptively girl-next-door demeanor. Then the performance reels you in. Truly remarkable. BettySoos sharp, often self-deprecating humor skillfully wove the songs together. Her clear, evocative voice and poignant lyrics recall Patty Griffin and Joni Mitchell, and did I mention shes a hell of a guitar player? NO DEPRESSION, live concert review