OFFICIAL:
http://chrismurphymusic.com/
Written
by David Shouse, posted by blog admin
Hailing
from Los Angeles, California Chris Murphy drops one off the most excitingly
innovative yet truly vintage sounding LPs of the decade. His debut with The Blind Baker Blues Band
leaves no stone unturned in its compositionally impenetrable and harmonically
cascading musical hybrid. A true mad
scientist’s potion that seamlessly and intoxicatingly meshes together blues,
pop, singer/songwriter folk, rock, rockabilly, swing, jazz, soul and sweeping,
lush multi-tracked movements into a cohesive shakedown where genre and style
have no place. In Murphy’s world passion
and playing mean everything. These two
components of Murphy’s music truly mean everything and are worth their weight
in pure gold.
Though
steadfast and stalwart implementations of organic instruments are the main
theme of this record, they are practically incorporated into each song in quite
unique and transcendental ways. Yet
Murphy’s adherence to the classic ways on Water
Under the Bridge keeps this record devoid of pretentious inclinations and
showboating just for the sake of it. Water Under the Bridge is packed full of
honest to goodness songs that are daring in their tried and true
instrumentation but willingly stretch the boundaries of somewhat set in stone
musical styles (country, blues, pop, rock, rockabilly, folk, soul, etc.). It’s the jazz element on this record that
makes it dangerous and unpredictable and that dynamic is in full bloom on
opening shack-shaker “Moveable Feast” and its blitzing acoustic/electric
violin attack, rockabilly rhythms, crystalline acoustic guitars and fierce,
surprisingly aggressive piano playing.
This anything goes formula carries over into the more moderately paced
and tongue-in-cheekily titled “Joan Crawford Dances the Charleston.” The speedier rushes of the opener are reduced
to a simmering blues crawl with a 1940s country slow dance permeating the
measured pacing and thoughtful piano melodies.
Six shooting vocal harmonies draw a bead on your eardrums as guitars,
banjos, violins, upright bass licks and brimstone chucking fiddle playing
hurtle in every direction on the road-burning bluegrass scorch of “Table for
Two.” The overload of attitude and
melody make this track a keeper across the board and Murphy’s understated,
honey-coated vocals paint memorable lines throughout. This ditty meets its polar opposite in
“Riverboat Blues’” creeping blues wail where extensive violin licks underpin a
workingman’s rhythmic groove and searing acoustic bits.
If
anything, Water Under the Bridge is
completely airtight from the first note to the last and the songwriting is of a
high melodic standard yet unafraid of experimenting with genre parameters. “I Swear I’m Going to Learn This Time”
implants an accessible pop vocal harmony into an angular old school piece that gets
jazzy, halts to a soulful flicker and then layers on a successive series of
instrumental blows where each instrument gets a chance to shine with a lead
bit. “My Spanish Lover” has shades of Al
Dimeola in its graceful, elegant acoustic guitar lines and spicy time-signature
switches. “The Lemon Rag” returns to a
bluegrass blitzkrieg where speedy pacing and layer upon layer of stringed
instruments coil around the tightly woven piano melodies. There’s something for everyone on Water Under the Bridge. Chris Murphy is a multi-instrumental
visionary that really knows how to compose enrapturing music. If anyone in the last 20 years has been a
virtuoso of these particular genres, it’s without a doubt Murphy and the Blind
Blake Blues Band.
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