"The last time we were here, I told the audience I only play sad songs and mean songs," Curtis McMurtry noted while making his second appearance on Mountain Stage. "It's been three years since we were here and I'm happy to report that since that time, I've added melancholy, vindictive, and bleak to my emotional songwriting palate."
McMurtry is third in a line of highly respected writers, following in the singer-songwriter footsteps of his father James McMurtry and his grandfather, Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry. As you'll hear in this set of songs, mostly from his 2017 release The Hornet's Nest, the youngest McMurtry has developed a sophisticated voice of his own. Listen to his entire set to hear his hot take on the overall improvements in Top 40 music and how Beyoncé's ground-breaking album Lemonade gave him partial inspiration to write "Wrong Inflection."
Noting that he's a fan of experimental 20th century classical music, McMurtry says, "You're either Beyoncé or John Cage. Or if you're like me, you're both."
Based on that inspiration, McMurtry weaved a Metro Card into the strings of his guitar and plugged it into a reverb amp to create the modified sounds of "Silver World." Instilling the chamber-pop qualities of the tunes is vocalist and cellist Diana Burgess.
Set list:
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