John Murry to play Strathpeffer and Ullapool in November.
Local promoter Brendan O’Hanrahan (Sage Kestrel Music) is bringing John Murry, a quixotic Mississippi singer-songwriter with a strong whiff of southern Gothic to Ullapool and Strathpeffer for the first weekend of November.
His widely lauded 2012 album The Graceless Age, gives a painful but lyrical picture of his downfall on drugs (and beginnings of redemption) while based in the California Bay Area (where he collaborated with the likes of Chuck Prophet): his family (wife and daughter) were lost to him, he was dead for 5 minutes from a heroin overdose and afterwards he began the record as an attempt to exorcise his dark experiences and innate fears. It received accolades such as ‘genius’ and ‘masterpiece’ from critics spanning the spectrum from The Sun to the Guardian. American Songwriter, the Times, Q, Mojo and Uncut, among others, all accorded it glowing reviews.
In keeping with the rich dark tapestry of his life and a background steeped in the musical and literary culture of his native South is the fact that he hails from Tupelo – Elvis’s birthplace – and is a descendant of the novelist William Faulkner.
John is a compelling live performer who is noted for his raw, brooding material and characteristic acoustic touches. But although he may appear at first glance to be a performer who lives exclusively on the dark side, his music has a wry, poetic beauty – with an astonishing gift for compelling visual images. And there’s also a penchant for a sometimes incongruous strain of black humour – fiery and challenging – which can ambush his interlocutors in mischievous ways.
He’s a storyteller, beguiling listeners with his confessional, cathartic manner and he’s certainly mesmerised the people of Kilkenny in the SE of Ireland, where he’s now based – becoming a beloved God of the local scene in the space of the barely 8 months that he’s lived there.
John Murry plays Crystal House, Strathpeffer on Fri 6th Nov (donations) and Ceilidh Place Clubhouse, Ullapool, Sat 7th Nov (tickets £6 at door) at 9 pm. For more details see @SageKestrel on Twitter.
Read a fab interview with John Murry by Cara Gibney.
