I'd have said that there is quite probably one apostrophe too many but I shall leave this to the pro's amongst you.
It's a cultural thing, I think. I've seen Persian writing, and they use lots of apostrophes. Too many, I would say.
You said "who's a national treasure". We're allowed to have more than one, aren't we?
James's, by blow of Larry's alcoholic years, first album.
I love this place. Can't stop clickin' back to read what's next. Thanks ogged. Are you really all one person?
I think it should be "James'" or "James's" depending on pronunciation. Everybody else is right about the apostrophe after "son," unless you mean some James belonging to McMurtry's son, which you don't.
Y'know, it occurs to me that Solomon's approach to interviewing is not unlike the w-lfs-n/Weiner approach to commenting (I'm not sure whether adding my name there is hubris or humility). Like, if these interviews were done in print, you know Solomon would be busting the newbies for omitting the quotation marks.
It's funny, I liked McMurtry better after I read the interview. He seemed to handle Solomon about right.
I'm a fan of the Solomon interviews, but not because the subjects always come off looking good. It's more that she's able to communicate the absurdity behind others' positions, or behind their celebrity in general, in interesting ways.
If James is Larry's son, and you want to render James into a possessive pronoun modifying "first album," it would be "Larry's son James's first album."
BTW, It's James's and not James' according to Strunk & White, The Elements of Style.
Or you could restate it as 'The first album by Larry's son James is really good'.
Either 3 or 4 is correct; I don't understand what's supposed to be confusing here, I'm afraid. There's absolutely no reason to make "son" a possessive in this case (although if "James" were removed, "son" would need to replace it as the possessive of "first album)..