some new music

last night, I was over at the home of some friends for dinner, good wine, good conversation, etc. and I put the new red mountain record on for everybody to hear (available in about a month). the record went through and then I switched it over to the new iron and wine record, and as soon as the first iron and wine song played, a friend says to me “oh, wow, brian – I really like this one.” and I said – “yeah I do too, but it’s not me, it’s iron and wine.”

hey, no big deal. iron and wine is better than red mountain. I can handle that.

(thanks charlotte, dinner was fantastic)

so, I’m told that apparently people like it when I post about new music that I’m into. so here goes.

check out shepherd’s dog. great record. iron and wine purists feel like it is a little too produced, but I say it’s a great move forward. I dig it.






josh ritter – new album, historical conquests of josh ritter, can be streamed here. josh is playing tomorrow (Halloween) night at workplay. I'll be there at the show, not dressed as a trojan, and afterwards, I'll be down at lasers edge to catch the free in-store. that's right - you heard me correctly - tomorrow night at 11:30pm josh ritter is playing a FREE INSTORE SHOW at lasers edge. and wait. it gets better. brian t. murphy (that's me) will be recording the show with fancy recording gear. so once again you have the chance to be on a btm live recording session - this time with josh ritter. looking forward to hanging out with josh, getting some great tunes, and seeing everybody.

Hem - ever since andrew spear introduced me to this band, about 4 years ago, I have found that my favorite band from new york consistently delivers fantastic music. they have a new ep, home again, with 6 songs they wrote and dropped for television commercials. check it out. the songs are strikingly beautiful.

Griffin House – stream his new record, flying upside down, off his site. At least half of the record is really good.

Sea wolf – saw this band last week at bottletree, and they were pretty good. check their myspace and see what you think.

radiohead is of course awesome, but I’m not saying anything about in rainbows here because if you don’t already know about this record, then you probably don’t really like music that much anyway.

of course - all these records - with the exception of the radiohead and griffin house records, of course, are available at your favorite local record store - lasers edge. go say hello to fred and pick a few of these up.

spots. speakeasy. TONIGHT!

photo: btm


design, layout, mad design skills: shawn avery

the danny murphy trio

my father stopped playing music professionally about the time I was born. I was the 4th of 5 kids, money was tight, time was even tighter, so the music had to go. dad was in his late 30's. but he always kept playing. I grew up watching his hands on the piano, and I remember thinking all the time how I wanted to be able to play like him. I'd sit at the piano and play things that were terrible. and I remember as a 5 year old, knowing there were songs in that piano, that I just didn't yet know how to get them out.

fast forward 28 years. dad's a bit retired these days, looking to get back into playing out again. and so this past weekend I put him together with two of my favorite jazz musicians in town - bass player tim carroll, and drummer michael glaser, and we set up mics and had a blast for most of saturday afternoon.

the thing about my dad is - he's really good. and you know, a lot of people say that about their family - they always think their dad or their brother is the best and smartest ever - but seriously, he really is good.

the music is just kind of in him. these old jazz songs - he didn't learn them in a classroom.

here, have a listen.

I got some really cool shots tonight

Downtown Photo Walk, Tomorrow Night

so it's obvious at this point, I suppose, that I am fairly obsessed with photography. it's not that I think I'm good at it, it's just that I really, really enjoy it. I enjoy seeing colors through a lens that my eyes never see. I enjoy capturing moments in a photo, and I enjoy photos that tell stories. In fact, I often would just rather show someone pictures I took, rather than tell them about where I went or what I did.

I have been looking into photography classes, but so far, none of the ones I've found have good reviews, or seem to offer what I'm looking for. so...I've been doing the next best thing. I've been finding photographers that are better than me and asking them to go shooting with me.

which brings me to the photo-walk tomorrow night. I have invited birmingham photographers to join me at the speakeasy at 6pm (I plan to get there around 5:30 for a few libations prior to the photography). we expect probably 15 or more people - some of them really great photographers, some of them just amateurs like me, the only rule is that you have to dig photography. this will be a low-key event, where we will visit, and then break off into however the group breaks off as we roam the city streets and take pictures of downtown, during sunset.

there will be lots of help, lots of suggestions (if you are looking for that), and also lots of good, laid back photography. and afterwards, you can expect some guaranteed feedback when you post your photos to the flickr group (I am a big fan of flickr - it really does a lot to help amateur photographers like me).

so, for more info, check this link. otherwise, grab your camera (doesn't matter if you have a nice camera or not) and join us, tomorrow night at the speakeasy.

o lord of all earth's children

so, again, those who know me know that I have dreams of someday making a record for children. I'm still trying to figure out what it will look like, what it will sound like, how it will come together; but I have hope that it will be my best work, maybe ever.

I told clint last night that it will probably be a decade in the making. hopefully it will be worth the wait.

in the meantime, here's the latest song. the text was sent to me from an englishman who I have never met. but he's written some fantastic texts that are very hymn-like, and I appreciate the fact that he is still alive and writing on the level of dead people.

this text really grabbed me. especially the line "take far the thought of anger". it was a bit of an angry week for me last week. anyway, I was playing around with this one, feeling insecure about it, and brooke said "hey - I like that one". so I decided to record a demo of it.

it's me singing, which is always a bad option. but you get the idea.

audio here

O LORD OF ALL EARTH'S CHILDREN
Text: Ewan King
Music: Brian T. Murphy, 2007

O lord of all earth's children
Be here while grace is said
bring mercy round our table
and bless our daily bread

take far the thought of anger
from every heart and mind
and from the fear of hunger
free us and all mankind

oh lord of all earth's children
be here while grace is said
bring mercy round our table
and bless our daily bread

new song from red mountain

why should I fear.
information, and audio link here.

spots on tv (link added)

so you might have missed it, so here is a link. the spots played this morning on fox 6 good day alabama. it was a lovely day on top of red mountain, and the people at fox 6 are nothing but kind. we'll be playing tonight at this event, which is awesome because it involves science and beer, two things that I endorse and love heavily.

san francisco, golden gate park, weddings, etc.

it was a glorious weekend.

would you like a sewer sandwich?

Come on over! It all started just a few days ago, when water was not properly draining from a sink in the basement. a quick visit from a plumber, and we were informed that it was an advanced form of water, called sewage.

Those of you not familiar with sewage – it is poop. and it is currently floating and thriving in my basement.

It’s funny, you know, because poop, upon being flushed, is supposed to go away forever, not linger in the lower levels of your home. but that’s the way we roll at the murphy house – with sewage.

It’s been a busy week of recording music and mixing for a new cd. we ran out of food one night, so I decided to offer everyone a sewer sandwich. the recipe is two pieces of bread, and then you just go down to the basement and gather some sewage between the bread, and then you put it in your mouth and then you swallow it and eat it. and then the best part about a sewer sandwich is that when you poop it out, it goes immediately back into my basement, which is a little thing that we in the murphy house like to call “recycling”.

Sound gross? well – I thought so too, at first. mostly because the bread gets soggy from the sewage. I learned that if you use french bread, and eat quickly, the sewage consistency is much stronger, and the sandwich quality definitely improves. If french bread is not available, then I suggest two pieces of bread for more sewage absorption.

Toasting sewer sandwiches is not an option. they are meant to be eaten cold, soggy, and fresh.

I’ll keep you posted on the sewage. I leave for san francisco tomorrow. my hope is that when I return home next week, I’ll be able to feed sewage to every neighbor in crestwood.

So, did the sports team score a lot of goals in the big game?

It’s not that I hate sports. I mean – who doesn’t love watching grown men perform the same maneuvers, over and over again, on a color television set? And I love balls and sports has a lot of balls. And I like physical fitness and good-looking people that collide and sweat on eachother. I mean, don’t get me wrong – I think all of those things are wonderful. I really do.

Oh, and I like how sports brings people together, like how the roman gladiator pits brought people together to watch real-life violent crime. Or how sports man Michael Vick used to get together with his good friends while they set dogs on fire after watching them eat eachother. I mean, it’s nice to go to a friend’s house and eat their food and hold their babies and talk with their women while they scream at their color television set and declare victory (or mourn defeat) based on how many goals their balls make.

So no, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I hate sports. It’s not that at all.

It’s just that I really. don’t. care.

I went to college, somewhat regrettably, at auburn, which for those of you not from around here, is a big state school in south alabama with something like 30,000 students. It’s also a big football school, even though it seems to me that the team is pretty average. at auburn, they erected a massive shrine to sports right in the middle of the university campus, which they use, I think, about 5 times per year. this shrine cost about 900 billion dollars and seats about 4 million people. as a freshman at auburn, I felt like I needed to go to the shrine and attend the big game(s), and watch the balls go up and down the field, because the game was apparently awesome. and everybody said so.

And so I went.

But somewhere along the way, I admitted to myself that I really just. didn’t. care. whether team auburn lost or won. whether the opposing team cheated. whether the refs sucked. I just couldn’t seem to care. and so, I stopped going.

I used to sit at home while other people went to the big game(s) and write music, and read, (mostly I wrote music) and before long, I found this entire community of people who would meet in coffee shops or on porches and enjoy time together, reading poetry, playing music, talking for hours. I was told that I was gay for not liking football, and I remember my first thought being “what’s so bad about being gay?” I remember people telling me I was missing out, because the big game was so fun and exciting, but I stopped believing in them, just like I stopped believing in republicans.

I would hear stories of amazing touch passes and end safety zones and special points and I must admit, it sounded quite spectacular, but still, I just didn’t care.

And these days, the theme continues; only I’m more removed from the sports world than ever before. just this weekend, for example, on saturday evening, I was at the grocery store buying food for dinner, to feed the musicians and mix engineer that are currently finding their way in and out of my home, and the nice lady at the register says to me “oh, buying some food for the game?” and I looked up, totally not knowing what she was talking about (my mind was somewhere else) and I responded “game?”

It was at this point that I noticed her wearing an auburn jersey and buttons that said things like “war eagles” and “I bleed oranges and blue” and so I said, “no, I didn’t realize that there was a sporting event this evening.”

“you not from around here?”

“no. I am. I went to auburn, actually.”

At which point the nice lady had nothing else to say to me, and she looked at me like I was a monster; a monster that had just eaten 3 human babies and had baby blood dripping down my carnivorous lips and neck. and so, seeing that my credit card had been approved, I loudly declared “I”VE BEEN APPROVED!” and then I went back home.

I mean, there’s the occasional rendezvous – like last years trip to the talladega superspeedway (truck racing = awesome) and last year’s trip to an auburn game (some old friends talked me into it) where I was told during the car ride down that I was encouraging conversation that was “too heavy for a game day.” to which I responded “oh, my bad. balls! goals! big game! go eagles tiger!” and then we were all happy.

Someday I’m probably going to have a boy who is a stellar athlete. I’d be a little sad about that, but I’d also enjoy the irony. he’ll probably win an heisman prize for scoring a lot of football goals.

and by football I mean balls that you kick with your foot.