James McMurtry has announced his first album in four years. The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is the Texas singer-songwriter’s follow-up to 2021’s The Horses and the Hounds. The record was inspired by the death of McMurtry’s father, a subject that’s addressed directly on its title track, which is out today. Listen to it below (via Rolling Stone).
“The album title and that song comes from my stepmother, Faye,” McMurtry said. “After my dad passed, she asked me if he ever talked to me about his hallucinations. He’d gone into dementia for a while before he died, but hadn’t mentioned to me anything about seeing things. She told me his favorite hallucinations were the black dog and the wandering boy. I took them and applied them to a fictional character.”
The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy is out June 20 via New West. McMurtry co-produced his new album with Don Dixon, and it features contributions from Sarah Jarosz, Charlie Sexton, Bonnie Whitmore, Bukka Allen, accordionist and vocalist BettySoo, bassist Cornbread, guitarist Tim Holt, and drummer Darren Hess.
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The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy:
01 Laredo (Small Dark Something)
02 South Texas Lawman
03 The Color of Night
04 Pinocchio in Vegas
05 Annie
06 The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy
07 Back to Coeur d’Alene
08 Sons of the Second Sons
09 Sailing Away
10 Broken Freedom Song
