Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry’s new album, The Black Dog and The Wandering Boy , opens with a menacing, corrosive tune called “Laredo (Small Dark Something).” It’s a true stomper, a natural fit for opening an album: A four-on-the-floor nihilistic rocker that chain smokes Camels and doesn’t like your face.

“We shot dope ’til the money ran out,” McMurtry sneers repeatedly at one point as the grinding music falls away.

The song is a natural album-opener. It’s also a natural concert-opener. So watch out for it at McMurtry’s show at the Charleston Pour House on Sept. 23.

A song like that is typically recorded best on the first take, and that’s what you’re hearing on McMurtry’s new album. In fact, it’s not even really a take, per se.

“It was a complete accident,” McMurtry told the

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