On tour promoting his latest album, The Horses and the Hounds, James McMurtry made headlines for wearing a dress.
During his encore at a Nashville show in May, the 61-year-old Americana singer-songwriter donned a red dress while singing his 2002 track, “Red Dress.” He chose the outfit in protest of Tennessee’s recent anti-drag legislation, and he’s since been featured in Pitchfork and Rolling Stone.
McMurtry arrives in Iowa City on Wednesday, June 14, for a sold-out show at Wildwood Saloon. In advance of the show, Little Village reporter Dan Ray chatted with McMurtry about why he chose to wear a dress, what the reception of wearing drag has been and if he plans to continue donning the dress.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You performed in drag for your Nashville show. Why did you choose that show?
We were protesting the anti-drag bill. It’s since been struck down. A federal judge – it was actually a Trump appointee – tossed out the Tennessee law, saying it was unconstitutionally vague. We did one more show in New Braunfels, Texas, [in drag] because the Texas Senate passed an anti-drag bill very similar to Tennessee’s.
[Several] states have [anti-drag legislation], and it’s just ridiculous. They always try to make it sound like they’re protecting kids. There’s this story going around about drag queens going to schools and gyrating in front of kids. It’s like that story about the water skier that skis into the swarm of water moccasins – it doesn’t happen. It’s just another story that got going. You’ll hear about that on every Texas reservoir, but it never happened. And you think a drag troupe is gonna go to a school and jeopardize its existence? You don’t put yourself out of business. It makes no logical sense. And nobody’s even bothered to do a fake AI video of this actually happening.
The reason I’m standing up for it is because you gotta stick up for everybody. The way fascism gets rolling is they target small minorities with the aim to introduce the general population to the joys of dehumanizing the “other.” And once that happens, then they start going after everybody. There’s that famous poem about Nazi Germany: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.” And [the author] goes through the whole list of things and ends on, “Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” So if I don’t stick up for the drag queens, who’s gonna stick up for me?
Are you going to continue to wear drag?
If states keep pulling stupid laws like that and I need to pull it on for the encore. I carry the dress in my suitcase in case I need it.
What’s been different since you donned the dress?
We got pictures in Rolling Stone online, and they published a piece I wrote about it. The reaction has been almost entirely positive, except for one guy in Knoxville. He got real angry and ran out the front of the theater and found a policeman and tried to get the guy to come in and arrest me. The cop just shrugged and walked off. Turns out the law was already on hold.
Was that your first time wearing a dress?
No, I did once a long time ago. We had a show that fell on Halloween in Austin. Austin’s favorite crossdresser, a guy named Leslie Cochran, was a street guy who would walk up and down the street with his shopping cart that he had his belongings in. He generally wore a bikini in the summers, but he wasn’t exactly in drag. He had a full beard and plenty of chest hair. He was kind of an institution around town. Frat kids would get their pictures taken with him. One year he put on a suit dress and ran for mayor, and he came in second out of a field of three. The third guy was a businessman that owned a bunch of restaurants downtown. Nobody liked that guy. They liked Leslie better.
Leslie died [in 2012], and a couple months afterwards we had a Wednesday night gig at the Continental Club that fell on Halloween. So we dressed the whole band up as Wizard of Oz characters. Tim Holt, the guitar player, was the Tin Man; Cornbread, the bass player, was the Cowardly Lion; Daren Hess, the drummer, made the perfect Scarecrow; and that left me with the Dorothy dress. I made some ruby slippers out of an old pair of loafers I got at a thrift store that I cut out and spray painted with some ruby colored paint. I auctioned those things off for charity, and a guy in Tennessee bought them. He paid $300 for those loafers.
Did this time wearing a dress feel different than that?
No, not really. Once you get it on, you don’t really notice. It’s not that hard to put on a dress. Well, actually it is. I had to have help with it. We jammed the zipper on the second night, so I was showing some back.
The Horses and The Hounds is a fairly political album. Perhaps the most out rightly political song, “Operation Never Mind,” talks about the contrast between the TV coverage of Vietnam and the lack of battle coverage today. What made you want to write a political album?
I don’t see it as a political album. I try to write songs that mention things a lot of people aren’t focusing on. “Operation Never Mind” is about the Iraq War. I knew some people that were involved in that. The privatization of military operations was something that people weren’t really talking about, and other songwriters don’t really go into it. The Chicks had that song, “Traveling Soldier,” but it sounded like supporting the troops to me. I do support the troops, but I don’t necessarily support the war.
A friend of mine that was in the military told me that, since the ’90s, so much of what used to be military operations got privatized. Nowadays Kellogg Brown & Root does a lot of the maintenance on the bases, and they took over the food allotments that used to be done by army quartermasters. It’s changed a lot. I put that in that song just to mention it so that maybe down the line somebody will want to do something about it.
Want to keep up with James McMurtry? Visit his website at jamesmcmurtry.com.
Dan Ray is a freelance journalist, musician, and model based out of Des Moines. Want to get in touch with her? Follow her on IG at @heyimdanray or send her an email at heyimdanray@gmail.com
