The Knotty Pine welcomes back an old friend on Wednesday, August 5th.
James McMurtry, Texas musician and songwriter who has played with the likes of John Mellencamp and Dwight Yoakam, is a veteran of the road and no stranger to Teton Valley. McMurtry first discovered the venue back in 1999-2000, right as the scene at the Knotty first began to take off.
"We met [two local musicians] at a gig at the Mangy Moose once," McMurtry told the Valley Signal in a recent interview. "Later, when we had some days off in the region, we called them up to see if there was any place we could play for tips. They suggested calling the Knotty Pine down in Victor."
"On a week's notice, they packed the place out," he added.
Ranked among the top 100 greatest living American songwriters in a recent New York Times survey, McMurtry's gift for storytelling runs in the family. His father, Larry McMurtry, was a novelist whose works included Lonesome Dove. James carries on the tradition in his down-to-earth character studies and commentaries, delivered at the gritty crossroads of Americana and outlaw country. Live shows are where McMurtry and his trusted backing band truly thrive.
For their 2026 tour run, McMurtry and his band have incorporated some new talent. "We've been working with BettySoo," he told the Signal. "She started as our opener and is pretty much a full member of the band now. She opens the show, I sit in on a couple of her songs, and then she sings and plays accordion with us for the rest of the set."
With political commentary a bedrock of his songwriting, McMurtry tells of the struggles that his protagonists face, from the universal and mundane to the austere. During the interview, he highlighted challenges that minorities such as BettySoo encounter in the present day.
"American citizens are getting detained because ICE doesn't care where you're actually from. They just care what you look like," McMurtry reflected. "I carry a passport everywhere in case I want to leave the country. BettySoo is Korean-American, and she carries a passport and a birth certificate everywhere in case she needs to prove she can stay in the country."
