It's a Sunday night in Dublin and the doors at Whelan’s are opened early to admit the growing queue outside the famous venue. Full of expectation, the capacity audience claim their individual spots on the ground floor and the balcony area, and eagerly await the return of master guitarist and storyteller James McMurtry to a Dublin stage for the first time since 2017. On a month long tour of Europe, James is accompanied by the superb BettySoo, who joins on harmony vocals, guitar and accordion for the main set, having opened the evening with an impressive solo set to warm the crowd. She is very much at ease onstage and her personable manner makes instant friends among those who are seeing her for the first time.
BettySoo delivers a number of her own songs that include Henry and Me, Memento, the beautiful Lark (a song from her days in Nobody’s Girl), and the excellent How To Live Alone with some memorable words ‘Living on your own ain’t as hard as before, No one to tell you to shut the cupboard door, No one to shake you awake when you snore, No one to say that’s too big a pour.’ She is joined by James during her set for two songs, the very resonant Blackout that tracks a relationship ending, and a wonderful, stripped back version of the Woody Guthrie song, Deportees (Plane wreck at Los Gatos) with superb harmony vocals telling the true tale of an air crash in 1948.
After a short interval we are treated to the wonderful world of James McMurtry for the next 90-plus minutes, during which he plays seventeen songs across seven of his studio albums, dipping all the way back to the 1989 debut and including stops along the way towards his most recent release in 2025. Interestingly he only plays one song from his latest The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy, with many of the older song choices delighting the loyal fans who have gathered to witness the spectacle. And very reverent they are too; I can only recall one shout out for a request as the audience focus on what the dancing fingers of James McMurtry decide to conjure up, negotiating increasingly complex fingerstyle playing and riffs that are mesmerising to witness up close in such intimate surroundings. I could hear gasps from those closest to me in the audience as he displayed great dexterity across the frets, at times playing distinct parts on either side of two capots placed at intervals on the neck of his 12-string guitar. His playing prowess is matched only by the likes of a Richard Thompson, such is his mastery of the instrument.
Ant then there is the songs … whether character-based observations, or personal reflections, the sense of irony and dry humour that runs through his words is a real treat to hear unfold. Witty commentary and pithy perceptions on the human condition, delivered with a knowing humour in his superbly crafted words. James is not shy of sociopolitical commentary and stands as a champion for the hardships endured by working class America. You just don’t want a night like this to end.
Included in the set are old favourites like Painting By Numbers, Red Dress, Copper Canteen (with the immortal first lines, ‘Honey don’t you be yelling at me while I’m cleaning my gun’). No More Buffalo is deep and poignant, with its lament for a disappearing world and the weight of ageing, while the real showstopper is Choctaw Bingo, that magical tour of an extended family reunion in Oklahoma and the deviant characters that colour the mini play of Crystal Meth bootleggers. The vocal delivery from both James and BettySoo is flawless throughout, and the pace of the rhythm coupled with the complex word play is something to behold. An astonishing performance. Other songs on the evening included If It Don’t Bleed, Canola Fields, Peter Pan, Levelland and Saint Mary Of the Woods. The recent 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attack is recalled on Annie, and the lack of leadership shown by President Bush. Other songs reference female titles, like Melinda, Jackie (a long-haul trucker), and Rachel’s Song, a poignant look at a relationship failure where the husband is left with a drinking problem and a small child who constantly asks after his departed mother. Only James can pull off these vignettes with both gravitas and grace. It was a very special evening.
BettySoo has a number of her albums available via her Bandcamp page and I recommend you explore her five releases to date. And of course, every serious music collection should contain the music of James McMurtry, one of the greatest songwriters of any generation in my view.
Review by Paul McGee and Photography by Kaethe Burt O’Dea