Joe McMurrian
Charleston, SC | Established. Jan 01, 1968 | INDIE
Music
Press
"Thank you for doing that one son, like Tommy Johnson used to do, but different, really nice, really good you know. I like that.." - Honey Boy Edwards
" I like your playing, you sure can rip on that Delta style...." - Charlie Musslewhite
"His fingerpicking and slide skills amaze and challenge listeners while his moving vocals draw them into the world of a true story teller.."
Cascade Blues Association Portland, OR 2006 - Cascade Blues Association
"Joe McMurrian is a great, gritty singer and a fluid fingerstyle guitarist with more than a little Delta influence in his sound - and the artistic moxie to make it sound fresh yet timeless.."
Oregonian, A&E music review - Oregonian
"spellbinding yarns. In among the mischievous spirits and tortured souls, McMurrian plays mystic, conjuring up the dark side of the heart armed only with a guitar and voice. You have to wonder if he didn't strike the same deal as Delta shaman Robert Johnson..Joe McMurrian is a great, gritty singer and a fluid fingerstyle guitarist with more than a little Delta influence in his sound - and the artistic moxie to make it sound fresh yet timeless"
Oregonian, A&E music review. - Oregonian
Discography
Releases:
Solo:
The River (soon to be released)
Live at the Aztec Theater in New Mexico (Soon to be released)
Get Inside This House - 2010
Rain of Days - 2007
Dredge - 2005
Under The Sun - 2002
Woodbrain
Swimming in Turpentine 2011
Live at the White Eagle 2010
National and International Airplay - XM Radio, I Tunes, CDbaby.com, England, France, Italy, Japan, Austrailia, Germany. Etc....
Photos
Bio
JOE McMURRIAN
Country Blues/Folk Songwriter/Guitarist
In addition to American/European touring and scores of festivals, Joe has toured & appeared with such luminaries as Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, George Thorogood, John Mayhall, Derek Trucks, David Honey Boy Edwards, Paul Geramia, Louisiana Red, Keb Mo, Eddie Kirkland, Robyn Trower, John McEuen, Charlie Musslewhite, Jimi Bott, Canned Heat & Ramblin Jack Eliot to name a few.
Joes recent solo release, 'Get Inside This House' was awarded the distinction of Best Independent Self- Produced release of 2010 by the International Blues Foundation of Memphis.
Onstage Joe creates a fierce atmosphere of self-expression and heartfelt communication. He usually is found alone on stage with an assortment of old guitars, a banjo, mandolin and floorboard to stomp on. As a one man band he is a mighty force to be reckoned with. On stage Joe is a master story teller with a vast knowledge of traditional American music history. He has even taught courses on the subject at Portland State University. Joe has also produced many critically claimed shows based on the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music (One Kind Favor 2012/2013).
His style is influenced by the likes of Robert Pete Williams, Skip James, Karen Dalton, Bert Jansch, Son House, Doc Boggs, Chris Smither, Ry Cooder, John Fahey and John Coltrane. He incorporates a variety of open tunings, slide, finger style technique. Joe knows the old material front and back with over 30 years of guitar playing under his belt, but is not one to rely on novelty in his presentation. Joe is no stranger to hard times and struggle, yet his energy is pure joy and excitement about what music can deliver to a listener.
Joe McMurrian is one of those rare players who has developed his own idiosyncratic instrumentalists vocabulary within a traditional territory. Never meaninglessly showy, but a fierce approach which is continually, assuredly asserting itself as a voice despite uncanny reverberations of the pastlike no other. That he has done this with his songwriting too is almost a bit unnerving. But perhaps in the end, it may be the vocals that penetrate the most. A strange marriage of smoky tone, restraint, exuberance, and implied weariness that both falls easily into ones expectations of the Bluesmans voice, and that which has been conjured for the first timefresh and raw and just slightly refined... Oregon Music News
"McMurrian plays mystic, conjuring up the dark side of the heart armed only with a guitar and voice. You have to wonder if he didn't strike the same deal as Delta shaman Robert Johnson." Don Campbell, Oregonian, Portland Oregon
"..brilliance, tension, effortless charm, dynamism, taste, character, and heart. Strong stuff. ? This one aint poured from the house well. This is the stuff they break out for the serious customer..." Oregon Music News, Steven Murray
One of the best electric blues bands on the scene... Think of Woodbrain as the North Mississippi All stars of the Pacific Northwest. Certainly this band has enough dynamite in its sound to blow up a small bridge. Jazz.com
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