James McMurtry not afraid to speak his mind

A few days before the presidential election, James McMurtry released a single titled “Remembrance” as a free download at www.jamesmcmurtry.com/. The Texas-based singer-songwriter, who will perform a solo acoustic set at the Bartlett this weekend, has spoken out against certain politicians in the past, but this was the first outwardly political stance he’d taken in years.

“People will live or die as a result of this election,” McMurtry wrote in a statement that accompanied the track. “We must vote for the future we want to see, corny as that may sound.”

Recorded in early November, the song is still fresh a day after the election, and McMurtry reflects on it in a phone interview mere hours after Hillary Clinton has conceded to Donald Trump.

“I barely squeaked that out before the election,” McMurtry said from his tour van. “I did that before with ‘We Can’t Make It Here.’ … That’s when I learned the power of the internet, because that song got more attention as a download than anything I’d put on a CD up to that point.”

“We Can’t Make It Here,” released right before the 2004 election, was hypercritical of President George W. Bush, tackling issues of unemployment, veterans, economic outsourcing and racism. “Remembrance” similarly takes on Trump: Recalling Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” in both its melody and its rambling melancholy, the song uses political figures like Francisco Franco, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to explore the fractious nature of 21st-century politics.

“There’s not much use for innocence in a world gone crazy and blind,” McMurtry sings. “Those who place any faith in intelligence must surely be out of their minds.”

“I was in Spain for a little while when I was 18, and it wasn’t very long after the passing of Franco,” McMurtry explained. “(The family I was living with) missed Franco, because they felt like Franco took care of them. … And that’s the appeal of the demagogue, which we’re seeing now (with Trump).

“Every election in my lifetime has been decided on charisma. There was Johnson-Goldwater – who do you think won? Then there was Nixon-Humphrey – who do you think won? And Ford-Carter – the only reason Carter got in is because Ford was the only person on Earth who had less charisma than he did.”

Is McMurtry worried that vocalizing his political beliefs will polarize his audience?

“I’ve done that already,” he said.

It’s often noted that McMurtry is the son of celebrated novelist Larry McMurtry, author of the epic Western “Lonesome Dove.” Although it’s not necessarily fair to compare artists simply because they share DNA (especially when they work in different mediums), it’s hard not to notice similarities in the kinds of stories both McMurtrys like to tell.

“I’m drawn to a good turn of phrase, really,” McMurtry said. “I get a couple lines and a melody, then I think, ‘OK, who said that?’ And I try to imagine the character that might’ve said that, and what situation is that character in that might’ve caused him or her to say that? Then I can come up with a story, and if it comes out in a verse-chorus structure, I can build a song around it.”

McMurtry, who played at the Bartlett last winter, has dubbed this current leg of shows “Back at It,” and he’s still touring behind his acclaimed 2015 album “Complicated Game.” Although he’s been doing it for half his life, McMurtry says his traveling regimen isn’t much different than it was 20 years ago.

“It’s just four guys in a van,” McMurtry said. “We go down the road and try to make enough money for us and to put gas in the van. The guarantees have gotten taller, and we’ve gotten older so we need more money. You can’t be old and broke.”