James McMurtry will release new album ‘The Horses and the Hounds’, his first for New West Records, on 20th August 2021.
His first collection in seven years, ‘The Horses and the Hounds’ blends personal narratives with effortless elegance and endless energy.
“There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He never signed on for work for hire.”
‘The Horses and the Hounds’ is a reunion of sorts. McMurtry recorded the new album with legendary producer Ross Hogarth (Ozzy Osbourne, John Fogerty, Van Halen, Keb’ Mo’) at Jackson Browne’s Groovemaster’s in Santa Monica, California, a world class studio that has housed such legends as Bob Dylan (2012’s ‘Tempest’) and David Crosby (2016’s ‘Lighthouse’) as well as Browne himself for ‘I’m Alive’ (1993) and ‘New Found Glory, Coming Home’ (2006).
McMurtry and Hogarth first worked together 30 years ago, when Hogarth was a recording engineer in the employ of John Mellencamp at Mellencamp’s own Belmont Studios near Bloomington, Indiana. Hogarth recorded McMurtry’s first two albums, ‘Too Long in the Wasteland’ and ‘Candyland’, for Columbia Records and later mixed McMurtry’s first self-produced album, ‘Saint Mary of the Woods’, for Sugar Hill Records.
Another veteran of those three releases, guitarist David Grissom (Joe Ely, John Mellencamp, Dixie Chicks), returns with some of his finest work.
McMurtry tours year-round and consistently throws down unparalleled powerhouse performances, reflected in the release of two live discs: the universally lauded’ Live in Aught-Three’ on Compadre Records, and 2009’s ‘Live in Europe’, which captured the McMurtry band’s first European tour and extraordinary live set.
