McMurtry brings well-traveled sound to Bartlett

For nearly three decades, James McMurtry has crafted tunes about dusty back roads, washed up high school jocks and blue-collar struggles. His rough-hewn voice lends a ragged edge to his sharp observations of the world around and the inner toils of desperate people.

That he has excelled as a writer is almost to be expected. His father is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove,” “The Last Picture Show), his mother, Jo, a retired college English professor. Back on the road in support of his latest record, “Complicated Game” – which RollingStone.com has dubbed an “Americana masterpiece” – McMurtry and his band are coming to the Bartlett on Thursday. A true road warrior – he jokes he’s the only guy to ever play Miles City, Montana – McMurtry took a few minutes to speak by phone from Philadelphia. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Q: It was six years between your last studio album, “Just Us Kids,” and “Complicated Game.” What were you up to in that time?

A: Touring. Touring mostly. The draw held up pretty good. Now most of our income comes from touring. We don’t make that much off records anymore. The whole industry has upended itself. When I started making records 25 years ago, we toured to support the record sales. Now it’s the other way around. We put out records so you guys will write about us and people will know we’re coming to town.

Q: I’m assuming you like being on the road. Or would you prefer not to be?

A: Yes and no. I complain about it until I’m home for too long and I start going crazy. The thing about the road is it’s really pretty easy. It’s all logistics. It’s all about getting from Point A to Point B with enough energy to do a good show, and figuring out how to do that six days in a row. You do it long enough, and it’s not that hard.

Q: “Complicated Game” is populated by some pretty sad and unhappy people, which I know is not unusual for you. Where do you find your inspiration for these songs? Do you know these people?

A: If I hear a couple lines and a melody I think, “OK, who said that?” Then if I can envision the character who said that, I’m more likely to get the rest of the song because I can get a story from the character. … It usually takes awhile.

Q: Are you always writing?

A: I write when it’s time to make a record.

Q: Are you able to at least gather strings for songs when you’re on the road?

A: Yeah. I usually start songs on the road and finish them at home. An iPhone really helps because you always have a notepad in your hand.

Q: Do you type your notes or dictate them into your voice memos?

A: I type them. I like to see how they’re arranged in terms of verse.

Q: You recorded “Complicated Game” in New Orleans. Did you like working there?

A: New Orleans is a different country. It’s the northern most town in the Caribbean. It’s a great place to hang out. … They’ve got great players there that they can just call up. They can call up Ivan Neville and say, “Hey, come sing on this song.” And Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) just happened to be there for awhile, and they kidnapped him, made him play keyboards on it.

Q: What’s on the setlist? Is it a lot from “Complicated Game”?

A: We start with a few old songs to get the people that are familiar with us into, get some energy going, then we break into the record. Do that for a little while. The problem with this record as a live set is you don’t want to do it all at once because there are too many slow ballads, and you can’t do that in a bar. You can do two or three of them, but then you have to throw in “Choctaw Bingo” or something like that. You need something for them to move to.