For this writer who spent many formative years in Austin, Texas, Wednesday nights are still spent best spent with James McMurtry. This is the case even if happens to be in Portland, Oregon and not the fabled Continental Club where the Texas songwriter long maintained a co-headlining residency with Jon Dee Graham. While his return to that slot remains to be seen, McMurtry is currently on a long overdue tour promoting his fantastic 2021 album The Horses and the Hounds (REVIEW). McMurtry often tours solo, so it felt extra special when he brought his band to Portland’s Aladdin Theater on Wednesday, October 19th for a full rock show that brought to mind his late-night Austin club gigs.
McMurtry has always been a performer of few words, preferring to let his lyrics do most of the talking. He did just that as he took the stage and immediately launched into the lively “For All I Know,” following it with a chugging version of “Childish Things” that found his guitarist and tour manager Tim Holt taking it away with the kind of rocking guitar solo that felt like pure freedom. He did speak after the song, but only to chide the eager fans yelling out song requests. “Here’s the deal, some of you are gonna hear what you wanna hear and some of you are gonna hear what you’re gonna hear,” he said in his classic McMurtryism style before reminding the audience that he had the set all planned out. As he has done in recent years, he introduced the solemn folk tune “Copper Canteen” by deadpanning its acclaim in the “failing New York Times.” “Canola Fields” – which features potent, resonating lyricism and one of the strongest McMurtry choruses since his 90s material – would be the first of several songs off The Horses and the Hounds he would play throughout the night. But first, the band cranked it up with the sprawling longtime fan favorite “Choctaw Bingo” that saw Holt laying down a blistering rock and roll guitar solo and McMurtry slicing through verses with a wave of psychedelic washboard effects on his guitar that kept the crowd dancing. Following the nearly ten-minute journey of “Choctaw” and its rowdy tale of the North Texas meth industry, the band left the stage and McMurtry grabbed a 12-string acoustic to serenade the audience with “Blackberry Winter” complete without a microphone to showcase the song’s powerful lyrics.
With the contrast of hard-rocking and solo acoustic now complete, the band moved onto the slow-burning “Jackie” and the anthemic “If It Don’t Bleed” before the anti-war tune “Operation Never Mind.” McMurtry would take it back to Complicated Game with “You Got to Me” before giving the fans a taste of his Spanish on the new song “Vaquero” that featured a guitar effect that sounded like acoustic and electric being played simultaneously.
McMurtry would save three of his biggest numbers for last with “No More Buffalo,” the instant fan favorite “Fort Walton Wake-up Call” with a free-flowing vocal delivery and chorus of “keep on losing my glasses” that definitely hit home with the older crowd, and a monster version of “Too Long In the Wasteland” that found the whole band jamming out. He returned to the stage for a particularly poignant encore of “These Things I’ve Come to Know” played solo acoustic. This final song found McMurtry once again using his lyrics to reflect on the state of the world and his own gained wisdom as a songwriter. Though there were tons of songs left out of the setlist, McMurtry and his band succeeded in taking the audience on a journey to the forgotten corners of America. And even though they were thousands of miles away from his homebase at the Continental Club, the band brought the same level of energy and intimacy to Portland.
6 Responses
Were we at the same show? I’m a huge JM fan, and his shows have been great in the past, but the sound at the 10/19 Aladdin show was a disgrace. Big muddy mess where you couldn’t even make out the lyrics. Ruined the show.
Yes and I do think the vocals could have been more crisp but disagree with you that it was a “disgrace.”
Performance was great, sound quality varied wildly throughout the Aladdin. Ironically, upstairs just outside the bathroom seemed to have by far the clearest vocal mix.
you right!
I could hear every word fine half way back in the middle of the dance floor , great show.
Agree that sound was great outside bathroom, elsewhere it was a muddy mess. Is it the acoustics at the Aladdin, or the setup from stage? Hope next time they’re at a better venue if it’s the acoustics. Otherwise reasonably enjoyable, just disappointing after such a long hiatus.