1. Waltz
2. Blues for Bukowski
3. Luminous
4. Dec 12, 1968
5. Night of the hunter
6. Hyacinth
7. The return of Queen Jane
8. Sparks from the wind
9. Farewell my lovely
10. The rustling of flowers
11. The golden horde
12. Bear cubs
13. Gospel music
14. Skinny Ed
15. Piston
16. Richard Widmark
Chris Murphy and his band
www.kufala.com
www.chrismurphymusic.com
Chris Murphy is a violinist
but a violinist with a difference. If one
says that his music touches folkloric roots
you might think of, say, Kathryn Tickell;
if one adds that he has affinities with Jazz
you might consider Regina Carter, or farther
out, Jean Luc Ponty. In fact neither of these
musicians is a point of reference. Murphy
plays the electric violin as if it were a
guitar. In that case, one might wonder why
he doesn’t put aside his violin and pick up
a real guitar – but that would be to miss
the point.
In this disc, unnumbered
so pursue the links for more information,
he has been joined by such as Tim Rutelli
from Califone, Larry Taylor and Steven Hodges
from Tom Waits’ band, Nels Cline from Wilco,
John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake from X and Victoria
Williams. Some you may have heard of, some
not.
There’s a bold, folkish Waltz
and a Blues-Rock workout on the Bukowski
number. If raddled barflies are required
this number is possibly too clean limbed to
do the trick. Doubtless Murphy would look
askance at the thought – or maybe he wouldn’t
– but something like Luminous, the
title track, has the agreeable lyricism of
an Aimee Mann song about it. He can mine the
ballad tradition as well – there’s a choice
if overlong example (most of these tracks
are slightly too long) on Hyacinth. One
of the most spectacular examples of Murphy
wielding his electrified fiddle like an axe
comes in the powerhouse The Return of Queen
Jane – a really tuneful and captivating
song. His backwoods tastes are audible in
Sparks from the Wind, a campfire and
collar-turned-up kind of a song. The hymnal
start to The Rustling of Flowers is
deceptive, because it leads us to folk waters
whereas the two tracks that follow slot more
conventionally into bluesy ease.
Eclectic and sometimes formulaic
though some of this is Murphy’s music is richly
felt. It’s an all-instrumental album and his
violin leads with its own particular and individual
force, even when it doesn’t sound much like
a violin. He’s at heart a blues man and balladeer
I think – a minstrel with romantic tastes,
who bows his fiddle where the woods meet the
waters.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
KUFALA RECORDINGS [78:12]
