" McMurtry's songs deal with the stuff of adult lives and the disillusionment of the real world, but he doesn't write or sing in a way that makes them sound stodgy. His work is full of the messy energy and surprising turns of a life lived hard, and on The Horses and the Hounds, the music speaks as vividly as his excellent songs. Not many artists pushing 60 get to deliver as satisfying a breakthrough as this one".