James McMurtry (born March 18, 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a Texas Country music singer-songwriter and occasional actor (Daisy Miller, Lonesome Dove). His father, novelist Larry McMurtry, gave him his first guitar at age seven. His mother, an English professor, taught him how to play it: "My mother taught me three chords and the rest I just stole as I went along. I learned everything by ear or by watching people."