SCREAM Paint Night
2026-04-04 21:30 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | Factory of Terror, 120 Pearl Street, Fall River, Massachusetts, 02721
SCREAM Paint Night at Factory of Terror

We’ve added a brand new weekend, and this one is Ghostface themed.

Paint a SCREAM-inspired piece… on April 3rd & 4th… inside a haunted house.

90-minute guided experience (beginner friendly) All supplies included (16×20 canvas, paint, brushes, easel) Includes 1 specialty mocktail $49 per person

Limited seats per session, these will go fast.

If you’re looking for something different to do… this is it.

Book now:https://factoryofterror.com/

Bad Bunny Bash w/ Felix Brown
2026-04-04 21:00 - 2026-04-05 01:00 | Primo on Water Street, 36 Water Street, Fall River, MA, 02724, United States
We’re bringing the energy back for our 3rd Annual Bad Bunny Bash, featuring the Felix Brown Band live

This is one of our biggest nights of the year—packed dance floor, live music, and a full Primo After Dark experience.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW: https://www.primoonwaterstreet.com/event-ticketsWe are offering General Admission and V.I.P. Admission:

V.I.P. Admission:

Guaranteed entry

Priority access (skip the line)

Best availability inside the main event space

Includes $20 value in raffle tickets

General Admission:

Entry to the event

Access granted based on capacity IMPORTANT:

General Admission WILL be available for purchase at the door the night of the event (cash or card), so if you miss online tickets—you’re still getting in

PARTY WITH A PURPOSE

This event is extra special—it’s our FIRST OFFICIAL “Primo’s Party with a Purpose” EventWe’ve partnered with the Mistletoes Community Foundation

50% of proceeds will be donated to support providing new shoes to children in our communityYou can learn more here:

www.mistletoes.org(website is still under construction… but hey, good things take time

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Live music by Felix Brown Band

High-energy crowd + dance floor

Cash prizes

Full bar + late night vibes

EVENT DETAILS:

21+ Event

Proper Dress Required

Doors open at 9PM

The Ellington Collective
2026-04-04 20:00 - 22:00 | Narrows Center for the Arts, 16 Anawan St., Fall River, MA
Saturday, April 4, 2026$35 Advance | $37 Day of Show[all-in pricing, no additional fees]Doors 7pm | Show 8pm

“An All-Star Tribute to Jazz Legend Duke Ellington”
Jazz enthusiasts, prepare to be captivated by Boston Based “The Ellington Collective,” an acclaimed jazz ensemble that pays homage to the timeless genius of Duke Ellington. This project features an exceptional lineup of jazz heavyweights, blending their unique talents to breathe new life into Ellington’s classic repertoire. Bob Freeman’s arrangements of these Duke Ellington classics were originally done for saxophonist David Fathead Newman and had never previously been performed live until the debut in 2025. The players have international profiles and an extensive set of credentials performing with a who’s who of the jazz and American music world some of which include: Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Nat Adderley, Bonnie Raitt, Kurt Elling, Slide Hampton, Dave Liebman, Johnny Hartman, and Joe Pass.

The BandLeading the charge in the horn section is internationally known recording artist, saxophonist, Dan Moretti, a versatile artist known for his dynamic tone and creative interpretations. He is joined by fellow saxophonist Greg Abate, whose powerful playing and bebop sensibilities bring an exciting edge to the ensemble. Trombonist Jeff Galindo adds his signature brass brilliance, creating lush, full-bodied harmonies that are a nod to Ellington’s big band roots.
The rhythm section is anchored by an extraordinary trio of musicians: John Lockwood on bass, whose deep grooves and melodic finesse l ay a rock-solid foundation; Tim Ray on piano, whose virtuosic and expressive playing seamlessly bridges the gap between tradition and innovation; and Marty Richards on drums, providing a rhythmic pulse that i s both sophisticated and electrifying.
Reimagining Ellington’s Classics“The Ellington Collective” takes listeners on a journey through some of Ellington’s most iconic compositions, like fresh renditions of “Caravan,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, I Let a Song Out of My Heart, Creole Love Song, Jeeps Blues, Prelude to a Kiss and “Sophisticated Lady.” Each track is reimagined with a slightly soulful touch while remaining true to the spirit of the original, showcasing the ensemble’s collective artistry and deep respect for Ellington’s legacy.
“Duke Ellington’s music is as relevant today as it was in his time,” says Dan Moretti, the project’s visionary. “We aimed to honor his work by creating something fresh and exciting, using the unique voices of each musician to bring a new dimension to these timeless pieces.”
A Stellar Lineup of Jazz Talent The Ellington Collective’s members are no strangers to the spotlight:
• Dan Moretti has made a name for himself with his diverse musical approach, blending jazz, funk, and world music influences. His creative arrangements for this album reflect his wide-ranging experience with 22 albums to his credit.
https://danmoretti.com/
• Greg Abate i s a celebrated saxophonist and composer, known for his fiery playing and deep connection to the bebop tradition. His contributions add a vibrant and expressive voice to the collective voted #3 in 2024 in the Downbeat Readers poll.
https://www.gregabate.com/
• Jeff Galindo , a trombone virtuoso, brings his rich tone and exceptional t echnique, adding depth and power to the group’s sound, has toured with many i conic jazz legends and was Esperanza Spalding’s music director.
• John Lockwood, a veteran of the Boston jazz scene, delivers masterful bass lines that provide the harmonic and rhythmic backbone of the ensemble. https://college.berklee.edu/people/john-lockwood
• Tim Ray , an acclaimed pianist known for his l yrical touch and improvisational prowess, infuses the album with dynamic and inventive solos.
https://www.agitatedcatmusic.com/
• Marty Richards, drummer a gifted accompanist whose innate sense of swing and unerring sense of time has graced the stage with a “who’s who” of American popular music.
https://www.facebook.com/martyrichardsondrums/

This is 40ish Pop-Up, Music by DJ Farenheit
2026-04-04 19:00 - 23:00 | The Brewhouse District, 139 South Main Street, Fall River, MA, 02720, United States
Reservations Recommended: 508-567-5862@thebrewhousedistrict

City of Refuge Easter EggHunt
2026-04-04 12:00 - 14:00 | MA
Free Community Event. Egg hunt, games, food and prizes

Meet the Easter Bunny!
2026-04-04 11:00 - 12:00 | Fall River Public Library, 104 North Main St, Fall River, MA, 02720
The Easter Bunny will be hip-hoping his way to the library to meet all his friends for this special Meet & Greet! Peter Cottontail will be posing for pictures and will also have a special surprise for all who drop by to say hello! Coloring sheets will also be available. All ages welcome!

Community Easter Egg Hunt & Park Clean Up
2026-04-04 11:00 | Father Travassos Park, Dean St, Fall River
Get Ready! April 4th is Coming!

Before everyone comes out to enjoy the day, we just want to take a moment to say THANK YOU… To all of our community partners, volunteers, and everyone who donated or showed love! This wouldn’t be possible without you.

As of right now we already have 1,500 eggs filled… with MORE on the way!

This is what it looks like when a community comes together.

We might not have much in the Flint… But together, anything is possible. And this right here proves it.

April 4th @ Father Travassos ParkBring the kids, bring the family, and come enjoy something built FOR the community, BY the community.

Let’s make this a day to remember!

The Grand Egg Hunt
2026-04-04 11:00 | Fall River Carousel, 5 Water St, Fall River, 02721
On April 4th at 11AM, right after the Battleship Cove Breakfast with the Easter Bunny, we’re filling the front lawn with thousands of Easter eggs for one of the most exciting spring events around!

For $10 per participant, guests can:

-Visit with the Easter Bunny

-Collect eggs throughout the lawn

-Discover what magical prizes might be hidden inside

This isn’t your typical hide-and-seek egg hunt; this is a Collect & Win Egg Hunt!

Eggs may contain surprises ranging from:

-Visits to the Prize Table

-Plush friends from the Bear Factory

-A Year of Carousel Rides

-Cash, Gift Cards, and other amazing prizes

This year the Easter Bunny has gone all out!

Live music from GoodFellow Jazz will be playing in the Starlight Salon from 11AM–2PM, adding the perfect springtime soundtrack to the celebration.

Local businesses interested in helping us stuff eggs and sponsor prizes are welcome to reach out!

Capacity is not limited and the hunt will continue until every egg is collected.

Purchase tickets per participant online or the day of:

www.FRCarousel.com

The Grand Egg Hunt is truly something special — a chance to step away from winter and welcome spring in the most magical way around.

Come celebrate at Battleship Cove!

Easter Egg Hunt
2026-04-04 10:00 | Calvary Temple Assembly of God, 4321 North Main Street, Fall River, MA, 02720, United States
EASTER EGG HUNT 2026

Join us for a fun-filled morning at Calvary Temple!

Ages 1–12

3,000+ Easter Eggs

Easter Story Time

Don’t forget to bring your own basket!

Rain Date: April 11, 2026 | 10:00 AM

Bring your family and friends—we can’t wait to celebrate with you!

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny
2026-04-04 08:30 - 11:00 | Battleship Cove, 5 Water Street, Fall River, 02721
Hop on down to the Battleship Cove to enjoy breakfast with the Easter Bunny!

Enjoy a pancake breakfast, crafts, an Easter scavenger hunt, and a take-home photo* with our special guest!

All tickets include admission to the exhibits for the day.

Advance ticket purchase required. Get yours today and save 10% on Early Bird tickets!

Early Bird tickets available until March 9th. Full-priced tickets starts March 10th.

Members receive 20% off their tickets!

*includes themed photo folio

TICKETS

Gary Hoey
2026-04-03 20:00 - 22:00 | Narrows Center for the Arts, 16 Anawan St., Fall River, MA
Friday, April 3, 2026
$43 Advance | $45 Day of Show
[all-in pricing, no additional fees]
Doors 7pm | Show 8pm

Rock & blues guitar legend Gary Hoey is touring on his new album Avalanche, his first album since 2019. “Avalanche” on Wazoo Music Group (Hoey’s own label) features special guest Lita Ford on vocals on “You Know I Would” and Gary’s son, Ian Hoey, on “Summer’s Here” and “Dear Mama” which is a tribute to Gary’s mother. Gary says, “Avalanche is a return to my rock roots. It feels great to turn up the volume and have some fun. This album was a therapeutic album for me. I named the album “Avalanche” because sometimes life feels like one thing hits you after another.
Hoey called on his old friends to help him record, Matt Scurfield (drums), AJ Pappas (bass), Ian Hoey (guitar), his niece Tayla Lemieux (background vocals). Hoey is hitting the road with his son, Ian Hoey. “I love to travel and see the fans after the show. And having my son Ian playing guitar by my side is a dream come true. We will be playing the new and the old classics, Hocus Pocus, Low Rider and more.”
Hoey’s first break came in 1987 when Ozzy Osbourne showed up in Boston looking for a guitarist. Osborne liked Hoey’s tape enough to fly him to LA for an audition. Ozzy suggested that Gary move to LA. He took Ozzy’s advice and with $17,000 he saved from teaching guitar, Hoey loaded the U-Haul and drove across country to LA. In 1992 Hoey released the album “Heavy Bones” on Waner Bros. A short-lived band. In 1993 Hoey released “Animal Instinct” which included a cover of Focus’s hit, “Hocus Pocus.” It rocketed into the Billboard Top 5, outpacing all other singles as the most frequently played rock song of the year. It launched Hoey’s career as an instrumental rock guitar hero and got him listed as one of the top 100 guitarists of all time in Guitar
Player Magazine.
1994 Hoey scored the surf cult classic “Endless Summer II” soundtrack and had another radio hit with War’s “Low Rider.” Other film clients have included Walt Disney films, ESPN, New Line Cinema, scoring the music to “California Screaming” (Disneyland Roller Coaster), “Office Space,” “Deck the Halls” (Danny Devito), and Beethoven’s III.
These days you can also find Gary on tour with Lou Gramm (voice of Foreigner) in the Lou Gramm All Stars as his guitar player. He recently released a signature beer with AleSmith Brewing Co (San Diego CA) named after his song “Summer’s Here.” Gary also produced and cowrote with the queen of metal, Lita Ford, on her soon to be released album as he did in 2012 on her album “Living Like Runaway.” Gary has toured with Jeff Beck, Brian May of Queen, Joe Bonamassa, Ted Nugent, Joe Satriani, The Doobie Brothers, Foreigner, Styx and many more.

Body Butter Making Class
2026-04-03 18:00 - 20:00 | SoCo Art Labs, 418 Quequechan St. 2nd floor, Fall River, MA, 02721
TICKETS

Cece's Closet Bootique Customes Release Party
2026-04-03 17:30 - 19:30 | Little Wanderers Sensory Play, 418 Quequechan St, Fall River, Massachusetts, 02723, United States
We are super excited to celebrate the release of our first custom collection!! Come check it out, shop, snack & kids can play!

Come by yourself OR bring your kids. If kids come along it’s $16 for their open play session.

We will also have an in person live auction

Johnny Botelho (live music)
2026-04-03 17:00 | Troy City Brewing, 16 Anawan Street, Fall River, 02721, United States
Johnny Botelho will be setting the vibes from 5-8pm in the taproom. Save the date and enjoy the amazing solo acoustic performance.No Cover – Taproom Open 3:30-10p

Fish Fry Fridays
2026-04-03 12:00 - 22:00 | The Tipsy Toboggan, 75 Ferry Street, Fall River, MA, United States

Shelby Means
2026-04-02 20:00 - 22:00 | Narrows Center for the Arts, 16 Anawan St., Fall River, MA
Thursday, April 2, 2026
$30 Advance | $32 Day of Show
[all-in pricing, no additional fees]
Doors 7pm | Show 8pm
Opener: Kathleen Parks Band
Born in the bluegrass of Kentucky and raised on Wyoming’s high plains, Shelby Means is one of the foremost bassists in bluegrass, with nearly two decades of experience in bluegrass, folk, rock, Americana, and country outfits. Now based in Charleston, SC, during her tenure in Nashville she was a member of the GRAMMY-nominated, incredibly impactful distaff bluegrass band, Della Mae. Throughout her career she has traveled to nearly 30 countries around the world spreading musical diplomacy.

Means is also one half of roots duo Sally & George with her husband and collaborator, Sol Driven Train’s Joel Timmons. With Timmons, Mary Lucey, and Billy Cardine, she co-founded another group, Lover’s Leap, a genre blurring, heart-led Americana band. Means is a member of Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, with whom she gained her first GRAMMY win for their 2023 album, City of Gold. She’s also received more than a handful of awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association for her work with Della Mae and Golden Highway.
Means is a driving player with a deep pocket, a singular stage presence, and a magnetic, centered approach to the upright bass. Beyond her work on the instrument, she’s also an accomplished songwriter and a heartfelt vocalist whose voice is rooted in tradition while authentically her own. With her debut solo music, slated for release in 2025, Means invites listeners to experience the same soulful presence and adventurous spirit she has built her career on. Her singing and playing has been heard across the country and around the world, from NPR’s airwaves, the Grand Ole Opry, Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and Newport Folk to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Kazakhstan, Australia, and beyond. www.shelbyleemeans.com

Board Game Night
2026-04-02 18:30 - 20:30 | Once Upon a Bookstore, 418 Quequechan St. 2nd Fl., Fall River, Massachusetts, 02721

Paint Night
2026-04-02 18:00 - 22:00 | Fall River Lodge Of Elks #118, 4500 N Main St, Fall River, Massachusetts, 02720, United States
Join Us for Paint Night — Tickets Selling Fast!

The Drug Awareness Committee of Elks Lodge #118 invites members and guests to an enjoyable evening of creativity and community — but don’t wait… tickets are going quickly!

Paint Night with Ms. Billie Martel April 2, 2026 6:00 PM $40 per person (Members & Guests welcome)

All proceeds benefit our Drug Awareness Program (DAP).

Snacks and light appetizers will be available, along with a cash bar.

For tickets or more information, contact Nancy Carpenter (dap@fallriverelks.org) 508-965-0151 see the lounge bar, or reach out to a committee member.

Teen Game Night
2026-04-02 08:00 - 17:00 | Fall River Public Library, 104 North Main St, Fall River, MA, 02720
Gamers unite for Teen Game Night!!!

Every first Thursday of the month, teens are invited to the Fall River Public Library to play all sorts of collaborative and competitive multiplayer video games on the library projector. Show off your skills, learn about games new and old, and most importantly… have a blast!!

For teens ages 13 – 18.

Sunflower Coaster Craft Class
2026-04-01 18:00 | Fall River Public Library, 104 North Main St, Fall River, MA, 02720
Join Stephanie Enloe of Craftyish Shop to create your own set of handmade sunflower coasters! Made from jute, felt and yarn, these adorable coasters will put a smile on your face every time you use them! All supplies are included. Registration is required.

English Conversation Group
2026-04-01 18:00 | Fall River Public Library, 104 North Main St, Fall River, MA, 02720
Learning to speak English can be a challenge. Come practice with us in the Nagle Room. Join our English Conversation Club and practice your speaking and listening skills. Beginners are welcome to join!

Candlelit Slow Flow Beginner Yoga Class (weekly)
2026-04-01 17:30 - 18:45 | Blue Lotus Spa, 64 Durfee St, Fall River, Massachusetts, 02720
Exploring the breath, movement and stillness. We will move slowly and compassionately thru the asanas in this Beginner-friendly class by candle light. All levels are welcome.

Dinner with the Easter Bunny
2026-04-01 17:00 - 19:00 | Barrett’s Ale House, 4171 North Main Street, Fall River, MA, 02720, United States
Hop on over for a festive evening the whole family will love! Join us at Barrett’s Alehouse Fall River for a special Dinner with the Easter Bunny on April 1st from 5–7 PM.

Bring the kids, wear your Easter best, and enjoy a fun night out filled with smiles, photos, and great food.

Snap a photo with the Easter Bunny Dress in your Easter outfits Enjoy dinner with the family

Whether you’re starting a new spring tradition or just looking for a fun family night, the Easter Bunny is excited to meet everyone!

No reservations – first come, first serve seating.

$20 Lobster Rolls All Month
2026-04-01 12:00 - 21:00 | The Tipsy Toboggan, 75 Ferry Street, Fall River, MA, United States
For the entire month of April, enjoy a New England style Lobster Roll for just $20! Lunch or Dinner!

Neal McCarthy Band and Mark Russell on Fiddle
2026-03-29 17:00 | Canned Heat Craft Beer Co., 52 Ferry Street, Fall River, MA, 02724, United States
Purrington and MORE!

Indoor/Outdoor
2026-03-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Little Theater Fire Barn, 340 Prospect St, Fall River, Massachusetts, 02720
About the show: In this unabashedly sentimental and charmingly romantic comedy, a cat named Samantha has just started living with a guy named Shuman who she believes is her true love. At first everything seems to be going great, but soon Samantha realizes that Shuman doesn’t always seem to understand her. Worse yet, Shuman doesn’t always seem all that interested in trying to understand her. Things become truly problematic when one night Oscar, a sexy alley cat, shows up at the door. Suddenly Samantha begins to wonder whether she’s an indoor or an outdoor cat. To make matters more complicated, a quirky aspiring cat therapist named Matilda inserts herself into the mix, thinking she can solve everyone’s problems but only seems to make things worse. Eventually Samantha finds herself on a journey, both physical and emotional, that leads her to discover what having a home and being loved really mean to her. INDOOR/OUTDOOR is an allegory about the difficulties and joys of all manner of relationships.

TICKETS

$26.59 for adults

$11.29 Children under 12

Thriller Panel
2026-03-29 14:00 | Once Upon a Bookstore, 418 Quequechan St. 2nd Fl., Fall River, Massachusetts, 02721
with Megan Collins, Lynn Tavernier, Joe Salerno, and Tessa WegertFor more info, click here.

Intro to Rebel Alchemy
2026-03-29 13:00 | 418 Quequechan Street, 418 Quequechan Street, Fall River, Massachusetts
Rescheduled due to SNOW to March 29th:

Introduction to Rebel Alchemy: A 3-Hour WorkshopSunday, 1:00-4:00 PM

You are not broken. You are broadcasting static.

Your soul has an original signal—a unique frequency that is yours alone. But between birth and now, interference has layered on. Old narratives. Inherited beliefs. Trauma that bent your timeline.

You’ve been transmitting through distortion for so long you forgot what clarity feels like.

This workshop is where you remember.

What You’ll Experience:

We’re not here to talk about transformation. We’re here to create it—live, in the room, in your body.

Signal Awakening — You’ll learn the physics of reality and the energetics of the self. Why observation shapes what’s possible. How your consciousness is not a passive receiver but an active transmitter broadcasting into the field. This is the foundation everything else is built on.

The Binding — You’ll understand how a soul’s signal gets corrupted. How darkness attaches. How the past doesn’t stay in the past—it distorts your present and shapes your future until you walk back through it and transmute it.

Resonance Tuning — You’ll take your first steps into the core methodology. Guided journaling. Intentional sharing. Sound healing and tuning fork work woven throughout to recalibrate your frequency in real time. This is not intellectual work. You will feel it move.

The Format:

Three hours. Teaching, journaling, pair and small group sharing, frequency work with sound bowls and tuning forks. We move in waves—learn, then feel, learn, then feel. The room will shift. So will you.

Who This Is For:

Anyone ready to stop managing symptoms and start rewiring the source. Anyone tired of temporary fixes and ready for structural transformation. Anyone who suspects there’s a version of themselves they haven’t met yet.

This is a Level 1 workshop—the entry point to the Rebel’s Path. We’ll run many of these, each exploring different facets of the methodology. If you leave wanting more, wanting to go deeper—good. That’s the design.

Investment: $40 (pay at event)

Location: 418 Quequechan St. (first floor), Fall River, MA 02723Space is intentionally limited. This work requires intimacy, not a crowd.

No gurus. No gatekeepers. Just you, the work, and a room full of people ready to reclaim their signal.

Reserve your spot. Your future self will thank you.

Scendancy Soul | Rebel Alchemy

Creativity with Color- Glass Painting
2026-03-29 13:00 | St James Irish Pub

James McMurtry
2026-03-28 20:00 | Narrows Center for the Arts, 16 Anawan St., Fall River, MA, 02720
$49 Advance | $51 Day of Show[all-in pricing, no additional fees]Doors 7pm | Show 8pmOpener: BettySoo

The Black Dog & the Wandering Boy

A Lone Star sheriff hunts quail on horseback and keeps a secret second family. A mechanic lies among the spare parts on the floor of his garage and wonders if he can afford to keep his girlfriend. A troubled man sees hallucinations of a black dog and a wandering boy and hums “Weird Al” songs in his head. These are some of the strange and richly drawn characters who inhabit James McMurtry’s eleventh album, The Black Dog & the Wandering Boy. A supremely insightful and inventive storyteller, he teases vivid worlds out of small details, setting them to arrangements that have the elements of Americana—rolling guitars, barroom harmonies, traces of banjo and harmonica—but sound too sly and smart for such a general category. Funny and sad often in the same breath, the album adds a new chapter to a long career that has enjoyed a resurgence as young songwriters like Sarah Jarosz and Jason Isbell cite him as a formative influence.As varied as they are, these new story-songs find inspiration in scraps from his family’s past: a stray sketch, an old poem by a family friend, the hallucinations experienced by his father, the writer Larry McMurtry. “It’s something I do all the time,” he says, “but usually I draw from my own scraps.” As any good writer will do, McMurtry collects little ideas and hangs on to them for years, sometimes even decades. “South Texas Lawman” grew out of a line from a poem by a friend of the McMurtry clan, T.D. Hobart. Driven by gravelly guitars and a loose rhythm section, it’s a careful study of a man whose feelings of obsolescence motivate him to take drastic action in the final verse. “Dwight’d stay at our house way back in the ‘70s, when we lived in Virginia. During one visit he wrote this poem about his father’s attitude toward South Texas. He wrote it down on cardboard, and I came across it recently. There was a line about hunting quail on horseback, and that was the seed of the song. I’ve lost the poem since then.”

The rumbling title track, a kind of squirrelly blues, features two mysterious figures who appear only to those slipping from reality, yet it’s never grim nor especially despairing. Instead, McMurtry namechecks a “Weird Al” deep cut and depicts a tortured soul who doesn’t have to work a nine-to-five. He finds a defiant humor in the situation at odds with the gravity of the source material. “The title of the album and that song comes from my stepmother, Faye. After my dad passed, she asked me if he ever talked to me about his hallucinations. He’d gone into dementia for a while before he died, but hadn’t mentioned to me anything about seeing things. She told me his favorite hallucinations were the black dog and the wandering boy. I took them and applied them to a fictional character.” Soon McMurtry had enough of these songs for a new record. “It happened like all my records happened. It’d been too long since I’d had a record that the press could write about and get people to come out to my shows. It was time.” What was different this time was the presence of his old friend Don Dixon, who produced McMurtry’s third album, Where You’d Hide the Body?, back in 1995. “A couple of years ago I quit producing myself. I felt like I was repeating myself methodologically and stylistically. I needed to go back to producer school, so I brought in CC Adcock for Complicated Game, and then Ross Hogarth did The Horses & the Hounds. It seemed natural to revisit Mr. Dixon’s homeroom. I wanted to learn some of what he’s learned over the last thirty years.” During sessions at Wire Recording in Austin, McMurtry observed firsthand Dixon’s grasp of digital recording technology as well as his instinctual approach to tracking. “What Don’s really good at is being able to sense when it’s happening. He can hear when it’s going down. If I’m producing myself and I don’t have him, I have to do three takes and then go in and listen to them. Listening to those three takes can take about 15 minutes. So Dixon’s ability to know when it’s happening is crucial, because it can cut 15 minutes out of the day. That can really save a session, because you only have so many hours in the day and only so much energy.

Working with McMurtry’s trusted backing band—Cornbread on bass, Tim Holt on guitar, Daren Hess on drums, BettySoo on backing vocals—they worked to create something that sounds spontaneous, as though he’s writing the songs as you hear them. They were open to odd experiments, weird whims, and happy accidents, such as the cover of Jon Dee Graham’s “Laredo” that opens the album. It’s an opioid blues: testimony from a part-time junkie losing a weekend to dope. “We were playing a benefit for Jon Dee at the Hole in the Wall there in Austin, and we thought it’d be good if we played one of his songs. We rehearsed the song in the studio, and it sounded good. The drums were ready. We’d already got the sounds up. Might as well record it.”

“Laredo” is one of a pair of covers that bookend The Black Dog & the Wandering Boy, the other being Kris Kristofferson’s “Broken Freedom Song.” “I did that one a few weeks after our initial sessions. It was just me and BettySoo, then we added drums and bass later on. Kris had just passed not too long before we recorded it. I guess that’s why I was thinking about him.” Like Hobart’s poem, it’s a bit of inspiration excavated from deep within his own life. “Kris was one of my major influences as a child. He was the first person that I recognized as a songwriter. I hadn’t really thought about where songs came from, but I started listening to Kristofferson as a songwriter and thinking, How do you do this? He was actually the second concert I saw. I was nine. He and the band were having such a good time, and that really solidified for me that this was what I wanted to do with my life.”

Once the album was mixed, mastered, and sequenced, McMurtry recalled a rough pencil sketch he had found a few years earlier in his father’s effects. It seemed like it might make a good cover. “I knew it was of me, but I didn’t realize who drew it. I asked my mom and my stepdad, and finally I asked my stepmom, Faye, who said it looked like Ken Kesey’s work back in the ‘60s. She was married to Ken for forty years.” The Merry Prankster’s—Kesey’s roving band of hippie activists and creators—stopped by often to visit Larry McMurtry and his family. “I don’t remember their first visit, the one documented in Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I was too young, but I do remember a couple of Ken’s visits. I guess he drew it on one of those later stops. I remembered it and thought it would be the perfect art, but I had to go back through the storage locker. It’s a miracle that I found it again.”

It’s a fitting image for an album that scavenges personal history for inspiration. Even the songwriter himself doesn’t always know what will happen or where the songs will take him. “You follow the words where they lead. If you can get a character, maybe you can get a story. If you can set it to a verse-chorus structure, maybe you can get a song. A song can come from anywhere, but the main inspiration is fear. Specifically, fear of irrelevance. If you don’t have songs, you don’t have a record. If you don’t have a record, you don’t have a tour. You gotta keep putting out work.”
