Real Roots Café Review
Murphy, isn’t that an Irish name? Yes, yes. This Chris Murphy was born near New York in an Irish-Italian family. His youth was dominated by many musical influences, Italian mandolin music, bluegrass and folk. A nice ‘training’ in my opinion. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles and earns his living by writing, playing and recording original (self-written) music for about 30 years. He has released no fewer than 19 solo albums so far, plus another 20 as a sideman and producer. And he also does about 200 performances a year. And he still continues unabated. Number 20 is this ‘The Road And The Stars’, a CD in which he really pulls out all the stops and shows what a versatile and gifted musician he is with influences from folk, rock, world, bluegrass, blues, jazz, country and Celtic. music. His main instrument is the fiddle, he also plays mandolin, guitar and percussion. I have not been able to find the information on the internet, but there are a few previously released songs on this CD, two live recordings from the live solo EP ‘Hard Bargain’ from 2016, also discussed here. And – great Tim O’Brien appears a number of songs.
For lovers of beautiful music with all kinds of fine influences, this is a super cool piece of work. A beautiful overview of what this man can do, a superior palette of his skills. With or without vocals, with or without a stomp plate, everything is equally neat and beautiful. Enjoy more than an hour! Buy that CD!! (Teahouse Records).
Written by Fred Schmale