Critics, peers and music aficionados have long lauded James McMurtry as one of his generation’s strongest songwriters and a wryly perceptive social commentator whose songs—atmospheric ballads and no-holds-barred rockers alike—are

Critics, peers and music aficionados have long lauded James McMurtry as one of his generation’s strongest songwriters and a wryly perceptive social commentator whose songs—atmospheric ballads and no-holds-barred rockers alike—are populated by world-weary souls longing for something different.

Certainly no slouch on guitar, either, McMurtry wields a Guild acoustic with the best of ’em, especially when he and his band, the Heartless Bastards, are on the road or tearing up Wednesday nights at Austin, Texas, landmark the Continental Club. Powerful roots-rock at its best.

McMurtry was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in March 1962, the son of famous novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry. Raised mostly in Leesburg, Va., he was still a child when he saw concerts by Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. McMurtry also cites Little Feat and the Band as important early influences.

Given his first guitar at age seven, McMurtry dedicated himself to mastering the instrument and was writing song fragments by his mid-teens. He started writing songs in earnest while studying English and Spanish at University of Arizona in the ’80s, playing with local musicians and doing solo gigs at Tucson’s Sawmill Café. He traveled for a while and did odd jobs before returning to Texas, where he worked in the San Antonio entertainment district. His first national recognition came in 1987, when McMurtry won a new folk songwriting award at Texas’ Kerrville Folk Festival.

Larry McMurtry gave his son’s demo tape to rocker John Mellencamp while the two were working together on the 1992 film Falling From Grace. The younger McMurtry was merely hoping that Mellencamp might record one of his songs; instead, Mellencamp wound up producing McMurtry’s 1989 Columbia Records debut, Too Long in the Wasteland. McMurtry also played alongside Mellencamp, John Prine, Dwight Yoakam and Joe Ely in a one-off band for the Falling From Grace soundtrack, which resulted in the single “Sweet Suzanne.” Later named the Buzzin’ Cousins, the band was nominated by the Country Music Association in the 1992 Vocal Event of the Year category.

McMurtry made two more albums for Columbia, Candyland (1992) and Where’d You Hide the Body (1995) before signing in 1996 with Sugar Hill Records, for whom he made a trio of acclaimed albums—American Indie Award winner It Had to Happen (1997), Walk Between the Raindrops (1998) and Saint Mary of the Woods (2002). Incendiary live album Live in Aught-Three appeared in spring 2004 on the Compadre label, as did 2005’s Childish Things.