Activism: Singer-songwriter James McMurtry

James McMurtry's We Can’t Make It Here turned the reclusive Texan into a political activist. On his blog, the singer-songwriter posts on topics that range from airport security and the current administration to the 2008 race for the White House: "Will the Democrats please stop running for president and begin the work we elected them to do."

We Can’t Make It Here was downloadable for free from his website during the 2004 campaign, and you can still listen to it on line at MySpace. In Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King called it “stark and wrenchingly direct," concluding that "this may be the best American protest song since Masters of War" (he also called the artist "the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation"). Then Congressman Bernie Sanders used the song last year during his successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. McMurtry's most recent album, Childish Things, includes We Can’t Make It Here in a version without any of the lyrics bleeped to protect the sensitive ears of the FCC (the equally righteous follow-up, God Bless America, is the download that's currently available on the artist's site).

McMurtry takes his politics on the road -- he's played the national convention of Veterans for Peace, Farm Aid, political rallies, and the like; at Cindy Sheehan’s vigil outside Bush's spread in Crawford, Texas, he joined Steve Earle for a free concert (hilariously, James McMurtry is one of the artists the White House confirms is on the president’s iPod). In April, he received Esquire Magazine's 2007 Esky Award for "Biggest Agitator."

"I've always been a little put off by activists," he says, "so you know it's a dire situation when I have to become one myself."

James McMurtry: <http://myspace.com/jamesmcmurtry/>
[McMurtry's label, Compadre Records, also has releases by Townes Van Zandt, Suzy Bogguss, Flaco Jimenez, and the great Billy Joe Shaver, among others.]