Chris Murphy - Sovereign (2021)

Inspired to produce music in spite of the pandemic lockdown, American singer/songwriter/violinist/mandolinist Chris Murphy invited more than 30 guest musicians near and far to collaborate on this unique mixed-genre recording.

Chris Murphy is rising artist who burst onto the streaming scene in 2016. Having always had a natural affinity for music, the multi-instrumentalist honed his craft over the years; writing more than five hundred songs and performing in forty US states, England, Ireland and the Netherlands. Although he receives creative inspiration from a number of styles such as jazz, blues, country, classical, ethnic and electronic, Chris Murphy combines a variety of compositional elements to form his unique sound.

Although ‘Sovereign’ is technically grouped under one genre classification, each track delivers a diverse range of compositional elements that showcase Chris Murphy’s songwriting talent; from the melodic strings, rhythmic percussion, foundational bass and steady acoustic progression of ‘Bad Situation’, the memorable melody and stylistic spoken verse that contrasts perfectly with the catchy chorus of ‘Wind In My Eye’, to the impressive instrumental piece ‘Hazel Creek’.

After 36 years of professional music-making (20+ albums and 500+ songs), Murphy has traveled through diverse music landscapes meeting great talents, each with a story to tell. “There is something so unique and inspiring that happens when creating music with all these amazing musicians.” The album features some of his longtime collaborators in Los Angeles, Nate LaPointe(Cubensis, Bobby Womack), Hal Cragin (Iggy Pop, Rufus Wainwright), Andreas Geck (Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera), and Mike Jerome(Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra), Doug Pettibone (Jewel, Lucinda Williams) along with other legendary musicians: Steve Wickham (The Waterboys), Tim O’Brien(Int’l Bluegrass Music Award, 2x Grammy Award Winner), musicians from Lunasa (Trevor Hutchinson, Ed Boyd, Kevin Crawford, Colin Farrell, Cillian Vallely), Bruce Molsky, Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits), Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello), Wally Ingram (David Lindley), Mike Watt (fIREHOSE), Walfredo Reyes, Jr (Santana), jazz recording artist Bob Sheppard, select artists from Harmony Glen and The Jolly Gents from Friendly Folk Records, and more.

TRACKLIST

1. Chris Murphy - Halfway Around the World
2. Chris Murphy - Bad Situation
3. Chris Murphy - Boxed In
4. Chris Murphy - Sovereign
5. Chris Murphy - Done with Diane
6. Chris Murphy - Til the World Lifts Its Head Again
7. Chris Murphy - Pear Blossom
8. Chris Murphy - Wind in My Eye
9. Chris Murphy - Three Feet Deep
10. Chris Murphy - I Knew It Was over Then
11. Chris Murphy - Never the Same
12. Chris Murphy - Your Guess Is as Good as Mine
13. Chris Murphy - Hazel Creek