Non-Music Notes and Assorted

The archives of Texas singer-songwriter James McMurtry include a career-spanning (from 1984 up to and including his 2021 album, The Horses and the Hounds) collection of personal papers and original song lyrics, press clippings, photographs, master audio recordings, and video cassettes. The collection is divided into nine series, with Series I-VIII comprising all of the papers, notepads and photographs (and some small personal items) and Series IX all of the audio and video recordings.

McMurtry’s song lyrics are all included in the first three series. Series I, “Lyrics for Released Albums,” is divided chronologically into sub-series by album, one for each of his studio albums (and one live album) released between 1989 and 2021: Too Long in the Wasteland, Candyland, Where’d You Hide the Body, It Had to Happen, Walk Between the Raindrops, Saint Mary of the Woods, Live in Aught-Three, Childish Things, Just Us Kids, Complicated Game, and The Horses and the Hounds. Within each album sub-series, the lyrics — mostly hand-written on loose notepad pages, often with several different drafts per song — are divided into separate folders for each song, arranged alphabetically.

Series II, “Lyrics for Singles, Unrecorded Songs, and Unidentified Songs,” contains 94 folders of lyrics for released as singles or that have yet to be recorded or released. Songs are separated into their own folders, and labeled either by song title (if known) or by a key phrase or line that either “opens” the song or appear to be thematically significant. Series III contains folders of legal-sized notepads, each containing lyrics and/or notes for multiple songs. Song titles (or first lines/key phrases) are listed on each folder. Series IV, “Notes, undated,” includes an assortment of miscellaneous personal notes, doodles, and directions that were found on loose pages among McMurtry’s song lyrics. Also included is a notepad labeled “Vocal Exercise” and a journal containing pages of prose, short fiction, and song lyrics. Series V “Business Records,” is arranged into separate folders containing copyright forms for songs, correspondence with record labels regarding CD production and royalties, and concert performance contracts, plus miscellaneous other business paperwork, business cards, and receipts. Series VI, “Photographs,” contains folders of both black and white prints (“live” shots and publicity photos), plus original color negatives and slides from different photo shoots, personal snapshots, album packaging proofs, a CD longbow for Candyland and an autographed CD cover from the Flatlanders’ album Now Again. Series VII, “Flyers, 1998, undated,” contains concert flyers from various gigs and appearances, and Series VIII, “Press Clippings & Publicity,” contains an assortment of articles and reviews from throughout James McMurtry’s career, including some copies of The Austin Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, and Texas Monthly. Series VIII, “Non-Music Notes & Assorted,” contains a shooting schedule and call sheets for Lonesome Dove, a calendar from Archer City, TX illustrated by cartoonist Ace Reid, and an anti-George W. Bush political button.

Finally, all of the audio and video recordings are collected in Series IX, “Recordings.” There are nine boxes in the series, most containing audio master recordings on tape reels. They are divided by album, including It Had to Happen, Walk Between the Raindrops, Childish Things, Live in Aught-Three. There also DAT tapes for Saint Mary of the Woods, CD “safety mixes” for Live in Aught-Three and Childish Things, an audio tape reel from 1987 labeled “Homeless Project: James McMurtry’s first paid recording project.” Box 19 in the series contains two computer hard drives (each containing live concert recordings, presumably used for Live in Aught-Three, and Box 20 contains 19 video cassette tapes of music videos, TV appearances, etc.