Virginia Arts Festival and North Shore Point Downtown present James McMurtry Thursday, March 26
North Shore Point Downtown returns to the Robin Hixon Theater Thursday, March 26 at 8 pm, featuring Americana singer-songwriter James McMurtry. Tickets are $30 General Admission, $40 VIP Early Entry and are available at northshore.com and vafest.org.
About James McMurtry
One critic says that McMurtry writes as though he has spent time eavesdropping on conversations in every Dairy Queen in America. Stephen King, who owns a classic-rock station in Maine, has written that he "may be the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation."
McMurtry’s critically lauded first album Too Long in the Wasteland (1989) was produced by John Mellencamp and marked the beginning of a series of acclaimed projects for Columbia and Sugar Hill Records. In 1996, McMurtry received a Grammy nomination for Long Form Music Video for “Where'd You Hide the Body.” Additionally, It Had to Happen (1997) received the American Indie Award for Best Americana Album.
In 2004, McMurtry released Live in Aught-Three on Compadre Records. The following year, Childish Things notched arguably his most critical praise, spending six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Music Radio Chart in 2005 and 2006. In September 2006, Childish Things and “We Can’t Make It Here” won the Americana Music Awards for Album and Song of the Year, respectively. McMurtry received more Americana Music Award nominations for 2008’s Just Us Kids. This album marked his highest Billboard 200 chart position in more than nearly two decades.
The poignant lyrics of his immense catalog still ring true today. In 2011, “We Can’t Make It Here” was cited among The Nation’s “Best Protest Songs Ever.” “‘We Can’t Make It Here,’” Bob Lefsetz wrote, “has stood the test of time because of its unmitigated truth.”
The Washington Post notes: “Much attention is paid to James McMurtry’s lyrics and rightfully so: He creates a novel’s worth of emotion and experience in four minutes of blisteringly stark couplets. What gets overlooked, however, is that he’s an accomplished rock guitar player ... serious stuff, imparted by a singularly serious band.”
Additional Details
The Robin Hixon Theater, Clay & Jay Barr Education Center is located at 440 Bank Street in Norfolk. VIP doors open at 7:15 pm, GA doors at 7:30 pm. Bonnie Whitmore will open the show starting at 8:00 pm. Tickets available at northshorepoint.com or vafest.org. No outside alcohol or glass containers permitted. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.
About North Shore Point House Concerts
North Shore Point House Concerts is one of the premier nonprofit house concert series in the country, a community of listeners based in Norfolk, VA.
Over 18 years, the series has featured numerous Grammy winners as well as artists who have gone on to play major venues. Among the artists who have appeared are Kelly Willis, Nicole Atkins, Gary Louris of The Jayhawks, Todd Snider, Aoife O'Donovan, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Chuck Prophet, Alejandro Escovedo, The Secret Sisters, Mipso, Travis Meadows, Della Mae, The Black Lillies, Slaid Cleaves, Birds of Chicago, Rayland Baxter, Kevin Welch, Robbie Fulks, Karla Bonoff, Nellie McKay, Garland Jeffreys, Lloyd Cole, Peter Case, Marshall Crenshaw, Mary Gauthier, Greg Trooper, Don Dixon and Marti Jones, Carrie Rodriguez, Amy Rigby, Garland Jeffreys, Steve Forbert (in photo), Eliza Gilkyson, Jeff Black, Jim Lauderdale, Jason Ringenberg (Jason and the Scorchers), Tara Nevins (Donna the Buffalo), Susan Cowsill, David Olney, Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin, Sam Baker, and Chris Smither.
For more about the series, visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/northshorepoint/ and the website at www.northshorepoint.com.
About the Virginia Arts Festival
Since 1997, the Virginia Arts Festival has transformed the cultural scene in southeastern Virginia, presenting great performers from around the world to local audiences and making this historic, recreation-rich region a cultural destination for visitors from across the United States and around the world. The Festival has presented numerous U.S. and regional premieres, and regularly commissions new works of music, dance, and theater from some of today’s most influential composers, choreographers, and playwrights. The Festival’s arts education programs reach tens of thousands of area schoolchildren each year through student matinees, in-school performances, artists’ residencies, masterclasses and demonstrations.