Live Review: James McMurtry w/ BettySoo @ The Birchmere — 9/18/25

When I spoke to James McMurtry last month, he told me having a full band “makes the rockers easier.” But that sells it short: While he rocked out hard with his band in his recent appearance at The Birchmere, the softer songs benefitted from the additional sonic texture provided by accordion and BettySoo’s fine vocal harmonies.

The interaction between BettySoo, who opened the show and joined the band for much of the main set on Sept. 18, and James was absolutely delightful. Grace Pettis once told me that they’re “basically the same person,” and I see it now. James’s has a dry and underrated sense of humor: His subtle reactions to BettySoo were priceless.

James seemed to be enjoying himself Thursday night, and he got off a few real zingers. He introduced “The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy” as a song about “two of my favorite hallucinations. They’re not real, but they have good ideas.” To illustrate the point that many people lack genuine proficiency in the English language, he told a story about driving down the highway in Oklahoma and seeing a sign that said “Hitchhikers may be escaping convicts.” James said, “We didn’t see a single hitchhiker. The convicts must’ve got ’em.” He added, “The state of Oklahoma requests that you rescue the hitchhikers, because there’s nothing faster than an Oklahoma convict.” All this was prelude to a “medley of my hit,” as he likes to say about “Choctaw Bingo,” which takes place there.

Watch James McMurtry perform “Choctaw Bingo” live on YouTube:

Introducing “Canola Fields,” James said, “We used to spend a lot of time going back and forth across Western Canada, wondering what that yellow stuff was.” Perhaps riffing on Canada’s more permissive stance toward certain substances, he added, “As Americans, we were afraid to ask.” Finally, he learned it was canola, and “I was able to finish this song after decades of dicking around with it.”

James is known being politically outspoken, and he got in a few shots at the current administration. “I wrote this before anyone had ever heard of ICE,” he said of “South Texas Lawman.” Before he wrapped up the main set with “Too Long in the Wasteland,” he told the crowd to drive safe, and, if they didn’t, “be nice to the nice officer, but if it’s an ICE officer, use your judgment.” He also reminded the audience to tip their servers generously, as he does at every show.

While I’ve seen James many times, he usually tours solo and acoustic, and this was my first time seeing him with a band. He played songs I hadn’t heard live before — he has an extensive catalog — like the title cut of 2005’s Childish Things, which won Best Album at the 2005 Americana Music Awards — as well as “You Got to Me” and “Sailing Away.” There were songs he plays regularly, too — “Copper Canteen,” “No More Buffalo,” and “Levelland,” which he “stole from the life a man named Max Crawford, probably the greatest novelist to come out of Floydada, Texas,” and which became “one of the Robert Earl Keen songs I wrote” — but there were a lot of songs from his last couple of albums, like “Vaquero,” which he called “a sad one,” “Ft. Walton Wake-Up Call,” and “Blackberry Winter,” which was a nice, intimate moment, as he did this solo acoustic and stepped out away from the mic, really engaging with the audience.

Watch James McMurtry perform “Blackberry Winter” live from Norfolk Street on YouTube:

Speaking of audience engagement, there was even some singing along on some of his more prominent works. Except for one brief moment of heckling, which James shut down with “Something you want to share with the class?” the packed room was respectful while having a good time.

For his encore, James came out alone and explained, “My dad [novelist Larry McMurtry] taught at George Mason, and my mother at the University of Richmond.” He told the audience they needed to play close attention to “Sons of the Second,” a song about the role of primogeniture [the practice of the eldest son getting the entirety of their father’s estate] in the shaping of the American South, “because there will be a quiz. Everyone knows I grade pretty hard.” When he finished the song, there was a look of satisfaction on his face — he knew he’d delivered a great performance.

I’ve seen BettySoo open for James before, but she seem especially locked in. She did a mix of original songs, like “Gulf Coast Highway” and “100 Different Ways of Being Lonely,” as well as covers. James came out to play his “Gulf Road,” and they ended with the folk classic “Deportee” by Woodie Guthrie, who she called her favorite songwriter. She asked if anyone else suffered from lifelong major depression, and was pleased to get some “woos” for that (while my struggles are with autism and severe generalized anxiety, mother has struggled with lifelong major depression, and a couple of her relatives lost their battle with it.) I did relate to “my mom says I’m too honest;” a couple of hours before the show, after a stressful day, my sister told me she and her husband are both under the weather, and I spat out, “He doesn’t do anything when he’s healthy.” It was honest, and I wasn’t wrong, but I shouldn’t have said that. I admired the psychological gamesmanship of telling the audience that openers talk a lot because that’s how they sell merch, which at the very least strongly discourages people from harassing her at the merch table without buying anything.

I’ve seen James McMurty a number of times now, and I enjoyed this show as much, if not more, than any of the others. A lot gets said about how he’s one of America’s greatest living songwriters, but he’s also a monster guitar player, and the band added a lot of emotional coloring to the songs. I see a lot of shows, and this is one that will really stand out in my memory.

Here are some photos of James McMurtry performing live at The Birchmere on Sept. 18, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Steve Satzberg.

And here are some photos of BettySoo opening McMurtry at The Birchmere!