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July 29, 2026
James McMurtry and the Martial Law Review come to Tractor Tavern on Wednesday July 29th. Doors open at 7:00pm and the show starts at 8:00pm. This is a 21+ event. KBCS 91.3 is proud to present an evening with one of America's most essential storytellers in song.
About the Artists
James McMurtry and the Martial Law Review
James McMurtry writes the kind of songs that make you feel like you've lived a whole life in four minutes. A supremely insightful and inventive storyteller, McMurtry teases vivid worlds out of small details, setting them to arrangements that have the elements of Americana but sound too sly and smart for such a general category.
For 36 years and 14 albums, the Texas songwriter has followed in his father's footsteps in a sense — presenting his brand of country noir music as Larry McMurtry embraced literature in novels like Lonesome Dove. His latest album The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy carries that lineage in its very title. McMurtry learned after his father's death that Larry had experienced persistent hallucinations — two figures his stepmother called the black dog and the wandering boy. He took those hallucinations and built a song around a fictional character of his own invention. That is what James McMurtry does. He finds the story inside the story.
The album features appearances by Sarah Jarosz, Charlie Sexton, and Bonnie Whitmore, alongside his trusted backing band the Martial Law Review — Tim Holt on guitar, Cornbread on bass, and Daren Hess on drums.
BettySoo
BettySoo is a songwriter from Austin, Texas. She doesn't wax overly poetic, but her songs might help you untangle your fears from your small wins and then lay out your most broken pieces in the light. She plays accordion and backing vocals in the Martial Law Review and has toured alongside McMurtry for years. On this night she opens the show as a solo performer before joining the full band.