Alex McMurray anyone?
One of my heroes in the songwriting world. A man so talented with melodies, rhythm and rhyme that I swore to get back to writing tunes the very first time I heard him. Not that I wouldn't on my own, but a man like Alex will put a proverbial foot in your pencil's ass, and paper will never be the same again. Songs shall manifest density.
The first time I heard him was when my friend Mikie Lee Prasad played me a 'Royal Fingerbowl' cd. It sounded like country music had just crawled out of bed with some cheap New Orleans hooker and took a bath in some gator filled swamp. It was the best thing I had heard in a very long time. The most original compositions. The depth in simplicity. I was back in metaphor heaven! Who was this dude, Alex McMurray?! Well, by the time I had his songs memorized in my skull, Royal Fingerbowl had become an historic landmark in New Orleans musical past. And I would never see them...ever. Meanwhile, my friend and fellow guitar player Mikie Lee Prasad went to go find him. Mikie, bless his suedo-groupied heart went down to New Orleans, met him and actually played with him. Repeatedly. In fact the last time Mikie called me from New Orleans it was during an Alex McMurray set. He held the phone out to me so that I could hear Mr. McMurray live via the wireless satellite systems of North America. Alex has this little project called the Tinmen. Tuba, washboard and some good old fashion magic song writing, ala McMurray.
How many times have I written the dudes name on this page?! Not as many times as I have listened to his music and sighed with relief that YES, someone out there is writing songs that we can sing again!! Even the children! And the tramps, and junkies, and pimps and drug users and DRUNKS from all over the continental United States of America!!
He's playing on September 24th with Mikie Lee Prasad and Amber at Beckettt's Irish pub
in Berkeley. That's on a Wednesday night...
Peace in your face
U.s
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