McMurtry and his band will be touring the western United States in support of his latest release, Live in Europe (Lightning Rod Records). The album is a document of McMurtry's first European tour, on which he was joined by keyboardist Ian McLagan and fellow Texas songwriting legend Jon Dee Graham. The set is available as a CD with a bonus DVD, or as a deluxe vinyl LP package with a CD and DVD insert.

Live in Europe, available as a CD/DVD set or as a vinyl LP/DVD set, has earned praise from the critics. Mike Seely, writing in the Seattle Weekly, wrote: "The great Texan James McMurtry released a new album of old material in 2009—in other words, a live album. No matter: Mere mention of its drop date gave me an excuse to delve deeper into McMurtry's supremely underrated oeuvre. . . This re-exposure made me surer than ever that McMurtry is the Springsteen of the South."

Blurt's Steve Pick added, "With a new administration in office, he's taken six of the less directly political songs from that record, added two other older cuts, and brought out Live in Europe. It's another chance to notice how in and around the anger about macroscopic events, McMurtry is capable of extraordinary nuance in describing the lives of ordinary people on a microscopic level."

In addition, McMurtry's 2005 song "We Can't Make it Here" was listed as the "Song of the Decade" both by the Lefsetz Letter's Bob Lefsetz, and by NoDepression.com's Grant Alden, the latter of whom called it, "Angry and musically adventurous and pissed off, which is different from angry. And a summary of how this decade felt, from my side of the typing." The Nation declared McMurtry "Most Important Rocker."