Chris Murphy - Water Under the Bridge (2017)

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Written by Jay Snyder, posted by blog admin

Like music you would expect to hear in a grand Civil War-era ballroom, Chris Murphy and his cohorts (The Blind Blakes Blues Band) fire on all cylinders with their latest eclectic instrumental album Water under the Bridge.  Molding a strong, soulful sound the record mixes and matches jazz, ragtime, blues, swing and country as so gloriously exhibited by opener “Moveable Feast.”  Saloon-styled piano that will make you want to soak back a sarsaparilla or three tangos hand-in-hand with vintage jazz rhythms, Murphy’s runaway train fiddle playing and some atmospheric guitar work.  This music is as catchy as it is progressive; welding together influences spanning a timeframe from 1930 to 2017. 

“Joan Crawford Dances the Charleston” furthers Chris’ out-there approach to his chosen stylistic attack in much of the same way that Frank Zappa threw caution to the wind in whatever sonic enterprise he decided to monopolize.  Murphy and his band’s take on the blues grooves with punchy upright bass work, ragtime piano, economical runs of downplayed electric guitar and numerous subtle tempo changes and aural fluctuations.  Neoclassical acoustic guitar lassos a flamenco element that positively dazzles the eardrums and only tangles the listener’s eardrums deeper in the artist’s audio webs.  The faster paced “Table for Two” incorporates bluegrass into the band’s repertoire with especial attention paid to high octane rhythms, fiddle on overdrive and spitfire, Nashville bound two/three-part vocal harmonies.  “Riverboat Blues” shifts into a slower waltz tempo that’s meant for swinging cheek-to-cheek sweetly with the one you love before “I Swear I’m Going to Learn This Time” settles on a danceable mid-tempo brimming with blue-eyed soul vocals with excellent harmonies, playful ivory tinkling, wayward fiddling and a rhythm section that’s completely locked into the arrangement.  A series of melodic stop/start instrumental licks and two-part harmonies enter at the 1:21 mark and craft an infectious sing-a-long you won’t be able to get out of your head with bleach and a wire brush.  An excellent segment of intricately picked, Hawaiian flavored guitar licks take the spotlight in one particularly potent segment which is immediately preceded by a fiddle lead and firmly bookended by some spotlight for the piano.  Even the bass guitar gets a shot to step up and command center stage.  Without a doubt this is one of the album’s finest tracks and my personal pick for a tester tune to see what Murphy and the boys are cooking up in their soul kitchen. 

Elsewhere “My Spanish Lover” a simultaneously laidback and engaging jazz number that’s afraid to strut both country and blues inflections over its 4 minute and 37 second course, “The Lemon Rag” is set aflame by a cavalry charge of busy fiddling heavy on the bluegrass touches while keeping the piano style firmly rooted in 1880s Americana, “Benzedrine Shuffle” buckles down on the blues in a well-layered storm of upright bass thunder mingling with every kind of stringed instrument imaginable, “Tomcat Blues” filters a blown out garage sound through the band’s usual and closer “Cheer uUp Mickey” relishes the minimalism of a kick drum and a rustic fiddle banging out complex melodies that are an absolute treasure to behold. 

Water under the Bridge is without a weak tune across its 14 track arc.  You get a little bit of everything on this record; from dazzling instrumentals to killer meat n’ taters singer/songwriter fare that sports a heightened level of instrumentation…it’s all here and sounds great.  This is a highly recommended release.        

Chris Murphy - Hard Bargain (2017)

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Written by David Shouse, posted by blog admin

Chris Murphy’s musical journey defines passion. Rather than contenting himself reworking folk and country standards for his violin, Murphy is an accomplished songwriter who performs original material. He records often, plays live as much as possible, and passing on his musical knowledge to future generations in his role as an instructor. He’s a multi-instrumentalist who felt the drive to learn multiple disciplines so that he might better satisfy his creative impulse. Murphy isn’t an artist who seeks merely to pay loving tribute to the past; instead, his songwriting picks up the mantle of long standing forms and revitalizes them for modern audiences. His soulful and often literary songs co-opt traditional language and turn it towards personal use while they remain accessible to his target audience and prove inviting to any novice listeners. Hard Bargain, recorded in front of a live crowd, is one of the most memorable entries yet in Chris Murphy’s discography.

He begins things from a traditional footing with the largely instrumental opener “The Caves of Killala” before deciding to lunge for listener’s throats on the second song. Placing the album’s title cut so early in the running order indicates a level of confidence we don’t often see with albums, any genre, and the catchy power of the song can’t be denied. It’s basically a blues of sorts and Murphy’s voice proves capable of belting it out with the right amount of grit, gravel, and gravitas. “Bugs Salcido” is one of the album’s high points. The bare bones musical arrangement gives the unsettled lyric an extra shot of tension and the winding, almost trance-like vocal melody piles details on the listener that reveal the story and subject incrementally. “White Noise” and “Last Bridge” are fantastically catchy rockers masquerading as acoustic tracks and should whet anyone’s appetite for the day, if it ever comes, that Murphy opts to work with a full on rock band. The virtuosic violin runs are what truly sets these songs on fire, particularly the fine “Last Bridge”.

“Prevailing Winds” is cut from similar cloth but developed in a much more relaxed fashion than the two preceding songs. The relaxed approach extends to Murphy’s singing and its easy going charms walk nicely alongside the warm violin playing. “Trust” is a strong song but, as well, serves as an extended instrumental workout for Murphy that never feels self0indulgent. It’s always a treat to hear the wide array of emotions Murphy is capable of manifesting through the instrument. The final track “Friend”: is one of the most emotionally affecting number on the album and this desperate lyric benefits from an extraordinarily sensitive, patient vocal from Murphy that will grip many early on and not let go. It’s an appropriately beautiful way to end an album brimming over with heart and the spirit of pure poetry color many of its passages and lines.