James McMurtry melds literature and lyrics

For a long time, James McMurtry was skeptical of the whole notion that songs could be described as literary. He figured it was just a label that journalists stuck on him because his father was the novelist Larry McMurtry, author of "Lonesome Dove" and "The Last Picture Show." But when the younger McMurtry heard his fellow Texan Steve Earle describe songs as "literature you can digest while driving," it made sense. It also allowed him to think of his own writing as a job not unlike his dad's.

By Geoffrey Himes

July 21, 2008