Hard Bargain by Chris Murphy

PRESS
“Haunting and enchanting...A talented and innovative player traveling on the edge.” -Dirty Linen Magazine

“Chris Murphy throws himself into these songs headfirst and applies passion and technique to everything he touches with a sure and steady hand.” -Gas House Radio

“He plays the violin like he was born with it.” -Roth N’ Roll “Music like this comes from deep within.” -Vents Magazine

Violinist and songwriter Chris Murphy, known widely and well to his fellow Los Angelenos, Seattle-ites and New York denizens alike, has been stoking his distinctive alchemy of Celtic, gypsy, jazz, roots and post-punk music over the course of some dozen original and acclaimed albums. He’s earned plaudits from roots-, indie and acoustic-centric outlets alike, from Gashouse.com to Indiemunity, who’ve called his work “virtually unparalleled,” full of “panoramic vistas” and “fine melodies that linger in the memory,” and ultimately, “gloriously alive with emotion and musical magic.”
Murphy’s latest album of fresh original material, the bracing 10-song live solo set Hard Bargain, finds him back in the sweet spot between J.J. Cale and John Cale, Vassar Clements and Chris Whitley, conjuring the Irish rebellion of 1798 to a jugular jig in “The Caves of Killala”; chasing the spirit of Charlie Patton on the plaintive “Trust”; investigating the intrigue of a 19th-century murder ballad on “Holcombe Creek,”; and shuffling in the groove between Springsteen and Chuck Berry on the jump-blues “Jumping Last Bridge.” Is it possible to suggest the avant-surf echoes of Tom Verlaine’s Television can coexist with a violinist’s take on White Stripes-style garage-blues? In Murphy’s world, it certainly can.
Recorded on a rainy night at a small theater in Boise, Idaho, with just Murphy’s insistent foot stomp and tales of gun-running, insurrection and doomed miners to accompany his fiddle, you’d be forgiven for thinking that time had stopped; the violin, especially in able hands that suggest gypsy divination, has always had a preternatural way of fusing the past with the present. But with Murphy’s own post-modern approach to those antique rhythms and the storytelling instinct that drives these rustic tales, the effect may be as much to foretell the future as to celebrate the past.
—James Rotondi, Spring 2017, Nashville, TN

Murphy has amassed a deep catalog of solo and collaborative albums and made cameo appearances on records by Har Mar Superstar and The Dandy Warhols, among others. Murphy’s recordings include the likes of Steve Hodges and Larry Taylor from Tom Waits’ band, Nels Cline (Wilco), Mike Watt (fIREHOSE), D.J. Bonebrake and John Doe (X, The Knitters), Herb Pedersen (The Desert Rose Band), Tim O’Brien, Joachim Cooder (Buena Vista Social Club), Joey Peters (Grant Lee Buffalo), Walfredo Reyes Jr. (Santana), Trevor Hutchinson (Waterboys, Lunasa) and Pat D’Arcy, L. Shankar (Peter Gabriel), Victoria Williams. In the last year alone, Murphy has written and recorded six new albums in a vast array of styles. Chris has also been featured on television programs such as ‘Til Death and The Ellen Degeneres Show; his diverse and chameleon-like talents make him a sought after composer and collaborator for film and television. Chris has also performed in over 40 US states, and toured in England, Ireland, and The Netherlands.

Chris Murphy is an American musician, singer/songwriter \ multi-instrumentalist , composer, arranger, and producer. His music influences come from jazz, blues, country, classical, ethnic and electronic, resulting in a distinctly original and powerful voice. Cyrus Rhodes of NO DEPRESSION considers Murphy to be “one of the best songwriters in popular music unjustly flying under the radar.”

chrismurphymusic.com
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