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James McMurtry: Landscape Artist

Geoffrey Himes, American Songwriter, 5 March 2015

MOST OF JAMES MCMURTRY's songs are populated by rural and small-town characters, but these are not pastoral hymns to the easygoing joys of country living. These people have it just as tough as anyone in a big Northern city; it's just that their challenges take different shapes. And because the singer-songwriter gets those shapes just right – refusing to soften or exaggerate their edges – he has to be considered one of the most realistic chroniclers of rural American life in this new century in any medium.

Total word count of piece: 2182

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