Sugarhill [Country]
2007
Americana Master Series: Best Of The Sugar Hill Years
About This Album
While he's doubtless grown tired of the comparison by now, as a songwriter James McMurtry's dominant themes often mirror those of his father, novelist Larry McMurtry. Both father and son are fascinated with the shifting character of the American West (though James rarely invokes the name "Texas," while Larry's obsession with the Lone Star State is well documented), the near constant battle between healthy discipline and Earthly temptations, and the various ways in which greed and bad judgment often win out in the end. However, unlike his dad, James can write a solid tune along with his strong, pithy words, and he knows how to lay a tough, sinewy guitar line through his songs. While James McMurtry is best known for his first three albums, recorded for Columbia Records between 1989 and 1995, they document an artist who was still finding his feet in the recording studio. In 1997, McMurtry signed a deal with the independent roots music label Sugar Hill, and in many respects the three albums he cut for them -- It Had to Happen, Walk Between the Raindrops, and Saint Mary of the Woods -- are the work of a more seasoned and confident artist (not to mention a more accomplished vocalist), and represent McMurtry's most consistently satisfying work.
Track List (try tracks 2,4,5,6,7,9,10,11 and 12)

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