Heights Theater 2026

By Paul T. Mueller

You might think that after about four decades as a touring musician, a guy might want to slow down a bit, take it a little easier. If you were thinking about James McMurtry in that context, you’d be mistaken.

The Texas-based singer songwriter is still performing with much the same energy and intensity that’s marked his shows going back to the late ‘80s. It was all on display Friday, January 16, at Houston’s Heights Theater, in a 100-minute set that included six songs from McMurtry’s latest album, last year’s The Black Dog and The Wandering Boy, and reached all the way back to his 1989 debut, Too Long in the Wasteland.

Highlights along the way included the opener, a blazing take on Jon Dee Graham’s “Laredo (Small Dark Something)”; the bittersweet lost-love tale “You Got to Me”; a lovely solo rendition of “Blackberry Winter,” performed without benefit of amplification (none was needed, as the capacity crowd followed every note in pin-drop silence); the biting social critique “Sons of the Second Sons,” and, for the encore, the high-powered, guitar-fueled “Too Long in the Wasteland.”

McMurtry, in fine voice, accompanied himself with an impressive array of six- and 12-string guitars, both acoustic and electric. Tight backing was provided by his longtime band, recently dubbed “The Martial Law Review” – guitarist/accordionist Tim Holt, bassist Michael “Cornbread” Traylor, and drummer Daren Hess. Curtis McMurtry (McMurtry’s son) and his partner Diana Burgess opened with a 40-minute set featuring their “sad songs and mean songs,” featuring Curtis’ fine guitar playing and Burgess’ outstanding work on cello.