OFFICIAL:
http://chrismurphymusic.com/
Written
by Frank McClure, posted by blog admin
A
self-proclaimed purveyor of folk, blues and “gypsy jazz”, Los Angeles’
multi-instrumental troubadour Chris Murphy debuts his flagship album with The
Blind Blake Blues Band, Water Under the
Bridge and,boy, is it a doozy! This
14 song collection presents a world worn, well-travelled sound that dates back
to the early 1900s and goes through a musical criss-cross spanning several
different major musical decades and landmark genres.
It’s
nearly impossible to pinpoint Murphy and his crew’s exact sound but trace
elements of the above-listed genres found on Chris’ website are as accurate
starting points as any. You could also
include r & b, southern soul, 50s rock n’ roll, finely aged bluegrass, pop
songwriting hooks and even orchestral/symphonic arrangements in terms of the
aural vast scope and the sheer number of instruments covered across this 5-star
outing. Murphy himself plays many of
them and on this record he contributes vocals, violin, electric violin, fiddle,
mandolin and guitar. He might be
responsible for even more instruments than that but it was as much as I could
wring out of the album’s bio. What Ry
Cooder does for the guitar and all of its forms (slide, bottleneck, acoustic, electric,
etc.), Chris takes on terms of the violin.
His playing of which is heavily featured on every single composition
heard here ranges from a lead role to a true soloist to rhythm work and even
atmospheric soundscapes like the ones heard on the multi-layered,
double-tracked violins of album finale, “Cheer Up Mickey.”
You
never hear the exact same tune twice on Water
Under the Bridge. Despite the
massive leans towards traditional styles heard on this release, the way in
which they are adopted and pressed into the sound feels like new musical
territory or at least the return to territory that has long since been
unoccupied. The album goes in all guns
blazing thanks to “Moveable Feast’s” dizzying swerves between nitroglycerin-charged
ragtime piano and country-tinged rockabilly that pits a pumping upright bass against death-defying violin work which feels like
an uncharted cove in a style that’s been timelessly honored by greats such as
Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Johnny Horton.
Murphy includes instrumentation that is denser and much more labyrinth
like than all three of these leading men’s groups put together and Chris
manages to pull off this feat on the opener without singing a note.
In
fact Water Under the Bridge is nearly
built upon instrumental cuts that barrage the listener with a bevy of tuneful
styles that never go out of date or truly reach an expiration date. It’s on these wordless passages that Murphy
and The Blind Blake boys shine the brightest.
The beefy, bluesy bass foundations of “Joan Crawford Dances the
Charleston” provide steady ground for Murphy to paint unfolding tapestries of
violin while a lively piano rhythm provides even more bang for the buck than
the drumming (which here occupies an auxiliary stance). It’s not until the caution to the wind,
freewheeling bluegrass and frenetic, fast-paced piano/electric guitar swipes of
“Table for Two” that we even get a vocal melody and it sure is a good one. It’s a vibe that’ll return two tracks later
on the spirited, country folk jazz of “I Swear I’m Going To Learn This Time.” Aside from these noticeable excursions much
of the album’s remainder is instrumental; the slow dance Nashville dip of
“Riverboat Blues,” the free-form piano pizzazz and exotic acoustic guitar
elegance of “My Spanish Lover,” the whirlybird bluegrass ride of “The Lemon
Rag” and the scowling, bourbon swilling saloon workout of “Dog Ear Blues” are
just a few of the instrumental masterpieces on this record and there’s many
more tunes that equally as good on this record that share in Murphy’s love of
instrumental music with a farmland aura.
Whether
allowing the vocals to steal the show or letting the music work its mesmerizing
magic, Water Under the Bridge is a
perfect record. I can’t think of
anything else out there right now that sounds like what Murphy and his band are
achieving. This is an upper echelon set
of songs from an upper echelon set of players that should be in every true
music fan’s collection.
