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Tonight, on this tour, James is performing with a full band — electric guitar, bass and drums. BettySoo accompanies him on an accordion for a few songs as pictured! We had seen her this winter at the El Mercado Sunday Morning Purgatory Players gig and she said then that she was just starting out on the instrument. James we've seen many times as an early evening solo act at the Continental Club Gallery (Austin) where he has a long standing residency. He also plays late at night once a week downstairs at the Continental Club with a band — perhaps these guys he has tonight. Of course these residencies are interrupted when he's on tour. When in Austin we much prefer to see him as a solo act and early in the evening. We're not long ball hitters anymore.
Doors open at 7:00pm, BettySoo comes on around 8:00 and there's a break before James around 9:00. Kate misses seeing James, at the break I take her back to our AirBnB via Uber, and I miss perhaps the opening tune of James' set. The audience wasn't very attentive to BettySoo but were very attentive and supportive of James. Many times the audience would sing along! One neat trick James does here (and at the Continental Club) is to sing one song without any electric amplification. That quiets down thing; people stop yacking to listen closely to what he has to say.
James did songs from across his catalog (he's touring to support his latest album "The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy" (2025)) but can reach back through to his first "Too Long in the Wasteland" (1989). Of course he did Choctaw Bingo; a big hit. Given the times we are suffering through with the Lyin' King in Washington I'm surprised he didn't do at least some protest songs. But then he's not known for that ... well, there's We Can't Make It Here Anymore (2007) and Cheney's Toy (2008) but they are now quite dated.
I like seeing acts here and have over the many years seen some of our Americana heroes — Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, Robert Earl Keen and Eric Bogle (Australian Folk). The setup is pretty good but there aren't many seats; Kate needs to sit down and get off her feet. There is a largeish "dance floor" in front of the stage but that's filled with a standing room crowd who block the view for those sitting down. We met our friends Tom and Tara from London who have grabbed themselves a spot right at the stage left. They were just a few feet from the performers. Tom has posted some of his pictures to Facebook.
I got my pictures by wheedling my way through the crowd to the front. With a camera in hand people let you do that. Pretty much all my pictures were taken with a flash and bounce card. Someone in the audience seemed to think using a flash was forbidden. If it was nobody, other than her, said anything.
We stayed overnight at a two bedroom AirBnB condo near Bay and College. Gord, Leslie and I stayed up late after the show and at least one of us had a painful hangover the next day.
Next week we will return to see Hayes Carll at the Horseshoe — another TX Americana singer/song writer that we follow.
See also — on YouTube James McMurty and BettySoo.
