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By Dave Miller

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If you blinked, you missed it, but let the record show that James McMurtry broke into a half-grin as he returned to FitzGerald’s stage for a post-midnight encore Friday night.

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Wearing a poker face and moving only as much as necessary to play one of his four guitars, McMurtry, 48, was a picture of restraint as a performer. Take the guitar out of his hands and he could have passed for a guy hanging out on a street corner watching the world pass him by.

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But the man has an observant eye, a sharp mind and an examining spirit, and an enormous talent for songwriting. His unadorned performing style put the focus on his songs, many which unfold like a novel. That didn’t happen by accident. McMurtry’s father, Larry, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who wrote Lonesome Dove. McMurtry paints vivid images with his words and his songs often unfold like a running story with the emphasis on verses rather than choruses. He examines the America found down the backroads, on the outskirts and in the trenches that you don’t hear about from politicians or see on TV.

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His songs demand to be delivered strongly, and drummer Darren Hess and bassist Ronnie Johnson accompanied McMurtry most of the night. Another guitarist joined them halfway into the set to provide additional muscle to the unflinching material. Nearly half of the show, seven in all, came from the 2008 release [i]Just Us Kids[/i]. The title track, “Hurricane Party,” “You’d a’ Thought (Leonard Cohen Must Die),” “Freeway View” and “Fire Line Road” were among the highlights. So were the epic reading of “Choctaw Bingo” and the disarming observations found in “No More Buffalo.”

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McMurtry also took solo acoustic turns on “Ruby and Carlos” and an encore of “Lights of Cheyenne.”        

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That McMurtry can play a satisfying and effective show without playing “Painting By Numbers” and “We Can’t Make It Here,” which would be cornerstones for most artists, speaks volumes about his song library. He did close the main set with “Too Long in the Wasteland,” the title song of his 1989 debut album about falling behind into oblivion that appropriately featured blistering guitar solos. McMurtry played so hard he broke a string. “Too long in the wasteland,” he sang. “I believe I’ll have to stay.” After singing the final words, McMurtry backed away from the microphone and nodded in satisfaction.   

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The setlist:

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Bayou Tortous
Red Dress
Just Us Kids
Hurricane Party
You'd a' Thought (Leonard Cohen Must Die)
Choctaw Bingo
Ruby and Carlos
Childish Things
For All I know
Restless
Freeway View
Lobo to Win
Fire Line Road
No More Buffalo
Levelland
Too Long in the Wasteland
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Lights of Cheyenne

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Start: 10:45 p.m./Finish: 12:39 a.m.
Totals: 17 songs, one hour and 54 minutes

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