![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/543d684b-cfe0-4c9c-9bee-7269ab6322dc/jack-murray-onstage.jpg)
It’s time to get “Blue Tuxedo” out there and Heard!
I’m launching this Kickstarter to get the overlooked classic “Blue Tuxedo” released, promoted and played. The ten tracks (and a bonus track) were recorded in Nashville with Thomm Jutz and some incredible A-Team players. If you’d like to be part of this noble effort, here’s what you can do to help me make this happen. Thanks!
Coming Attractions
“This is a song by a friend of mine, Jack Murray -up in Pennsylvania. He’s a sign-painter. But he’s also a song writer. I’ve known him for years. I love this song.(‘Bluebonnet Girl’) It’s so challenging to be able to write a song like this. Townes did it with “Rex’s Blues.” They’re so simple -but the simplicity is what makes them find this kind of depth. It really struck me when I first heard this song.”
~David Olney Legendary Nashville singer-songwriter with cuts by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and others.
“Your new CD is fantastic. Perfect music for a chilly spring morning. Every song is top shelf and there's some mighty fine picking going on in the Mt. Juliet band. I think Hank and Townes are both looking over your shoulder smiling. Sounds as good as any alt-country record cut on Music Row (where no sane person goes to cut anymore). As you know I've worked with the best, this CD is A-team quality and you sound awesome.”
~ Craig Bickhardt. Award-winning veteran Nashville songwriter, (“This Old House” “Givers and Takers”) Member of SKB Band.
Loose Talk…
“What a collection of soul and wit, this package you sent me is, my friend. “Bluebonnet Girl” will, for many reasons, always be the one that reminds me of why I ever got into this business in the first place – just to hear songs like this and to meet the souls that created them. And I remember sitting beside you hearing “Used To Be A River” and welling up. “Things We’ll Never Do” is, for the lack of a better adjective, acid country. God, I love this song. “Amazing Grace…” and “Jesus Saved The Hell Out Of Me” sound like they fell off of a Billy Joe Shaver record.”
~ Tony Arata. Award-winning veteran Nashville songwriter with cuts by Patty Loveless, Garth Brooks (“The Dance”) and many others.
“What an incredible honor that one of the world’s greatest songwriters was playing your song. David thought the world of you and your music”
~Peter Cooper Singer-songwriter, music journalist. On hearing that David Olney had passed away, on stage, while singing Jack Murray’s “Bluebonnet Girl".”
“Hey Jack! We’ve played your record (‘Blue Tuxedo’) twice already. It’s cool to hear Tom Paxton singing along with ‘Bluebonnet Girl’ in the back seat! We all totally dig your album!”
~Don Henry with Jon Vezner ‘The Don Juans’ Veteran Nashville songwriters (“Where’ve You Been”) -in a post from the road with with folk legend Tom Paxton.
“I love your new record. (“Blue Tuxedo”) Thanks so much for sending me one. The band sounds good, and your songs and singing are the real star. it has the gravitas of Merle Haggard at times, but the de La Rochefoucauld wit is sprinkled in there when most needed. Glad to hear you wailing. On the new disc you have such an authentic touch on the stuff you did play, it really made everything else fall right into place, like with all great musicians. Congrats on a task well met.”
~ Richard Stekol California-based singer-songwriter, guitarist (‘Honk’ ‘The Funky Kings’)
“Roy Orbison, Steve Earle, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Waylon, Willie, The Derailers… put ‘em all together and you’ve almost got Jack Murray. We’re not supposed to regret things, but I regret that I didn’t get to play enough with this master of music and wordsmithing when I lived in Pennsylvania. He just sent me his CD -“Then There’s That… I’m posting the first track “Here’s to Hopin’ Amazing Grace is True.” You’ve Got to hear this guy. Thanks, Jack, -my buddy, my pal.”
~Steve Hawkins Oklahoma-based Veteran guitarist, sideman ‘Darci Lynne’ ‘Three Dog Night’ ‘The Drifters’ and many others.
What I’m up to:
I’m hoping to raise some money to get the record I made in Nashville a few years back with multiple Grammy nominee Thomm Jutz manufactured, promoted and out in the world where it belongs. I’ve slowly come around to being convinced it’s worthy of the effort and expense. I hope you’ll think so too. I felt pretty good about the songs I took to Thomm’s studio but really had no real idea what I was walking into. I didn’t know who the players would be -or even who they were -until after they drove off after three and a half hours. Thomm and I played all the guitars. Thomm sang all the background harmonies. The session band was a killer: Dave Francis on acoustic and upright bass, Lynn Williams on drums and percussion and “utility man” Justin Moses -on fiddle, banjo and Dobro. Wow.
I hope to raise enough funds to release the record with new packaging, ready for digital play and tracking -and to have enough of a budget to promote it effectively to a broader audience. I’ll be snazzing up my web page, making some new videos, and generally, get my house in better order. The record some of you know as “The View From Mt. Juliet” has been retitled “Blue Tuxedo.” The record also contains “Bluebonnet Girl” -a song I wrote for Ramona that, incredibly enough, my old friend and Nashville legend David Olney had adopted as his own in his last months among us. There’s so much more to that story. I’ll add a link or two to fill out more of the details when I can.
I hope to reissue my out-of-print first record “Then There’s That…” hoping that the promotion efforts on behalf of “Blue Tuxedo” might stir some interest in these lost tracks. I hoping, as well, to lay the groundwork for recording a wave of new songs I’m getting excited about.
In the years since its recording, this record has been accruing some rather extraordinary mojo, praised, incredibly enough, by some of my musical heroes, including some of my Nashville songwriting heroes Thom Schuyler, Craig Bickhardt, Don Henry, Jack Sundrud and Tony Arata, all of whom I’ve had the honor of swapping songs with on stage at a number of Bluebird Cafe-style In-The-Round concerts
The Nashville tracks exist only on home-burned copies made for friends, but an official recording has never been out there with all the metadata and other things necessary to have the songs available to be played on digital streaming platforms like Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and others.
!["On the Road & In the Round" at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, PA. Jack Murray with Nashville's Music Row veterans Thom Schuyler, Craig Bickhardt and Jack Sundrud.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/00b46b2c-c0d5-4525-9d8c-cbac35b41e04/17545594_1266689666720083_3637946121049604849_o.jpg)
"On the Road & In the Round" at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, PA. Jack Murray with Nashville's Music Row veterans Thom Schuyler, Craig Bickhardt and Jack Sundrud.
![At home, Barto, PA. 2023](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/6a89593a-31df-4f4c-a039-3217c24c6fe6/JM+web.jpg)
At home, Barto, PA. 2023
![On stage at Godfrey Daniels -with the Blue Tarp Wranglers](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/a08b634c-cecc-4af5-8948-cf66d4002549/257233167_6384177094986466_431949934928365693_n.jpg)
On stage at Godfrey Daniels -with the Blue Tarp Wranglers
![At Mike's Tavern, Reading, PA. With the Blue Tarp Wranglers; Dave Van Allen, Alan Landes, Josh Kanusky and Nick Franclik.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/7d9e23be-74a0-41ee-a2a1-a6bc60e283dd/Screen+Shot+2022-09-22+at+2.37.15+PM.png)
At Mike's Tavern, Reading, PA. With the Blue Tarp Wranglers; Dave Van Allen, Alan Landes, Josh Kanusky and Nick Franclik.
![At Godfrey Daniels with Lenny Kaye and the Blue Tarp Wranglers.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/6e9984ec-a318-4d6b-ba82-09b0e597a89f/75402158_10220662326612104_5514174048793264128_n.jpg)
At Godfrey Daniels with Lenny Kaye and the Blue Tarp Wranglers.
![Screen Shot 2023-04-14 at 11.51.37 AM.png](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/c3e14a6c-fc65-4477-ae1f-c2dd92f96498/Screen+Shot+2023-04-14+at+11.51.37+AM.png)
![At the Philadelphia Folk Festival -with Bob Beach and Robin and Linda Williams.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/50660efb-840d-44fc-984e-dcc61fcda5b0/14095743_10207290946052898_4291678200677821905_n.jpg)
At the Philadelphia Folk Festival -with Bob Beach and Robin and Linda Williams.
![Belcourt Theater, Nashville, TN -performing "Bluebonnet Girl" at David Olney's Celebration of Life Concert, March 9, 2020](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/34ae40ea-0b5f-4109-ba70-d17d0073f8ca/Screen+Shot+2020-10-23+at+10.05.18+AM.png)
Belcourt Theater, Nashville, TN -performing "Bluebonnet Girl" at David Olney's Celebration of Life Concert, March 9, 2020
![Backstage at the Belcourt Theater, Nashville. Getting ready to go on for my part of the David Olney Celebration of Life concert.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/739b4e70-9e0b-4a43-a03b-096d00112e41/91883934_10221218252627969_1805699925929885696_n.jpg)
Backstage at the Belcourt Theater, Nashville. Getting ready to go on for my part of the David Olney Celebration of Life concert.
![Me and the Blue Tarp Wranglers at Godfrey Daniels -featuring Lenny Kaye!](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/5cb953c9-b626-4c41-b41d-3b78984996a7/76695097_1699005020234892_6429061649742692352_n.jpg)
Me and the Blue Tarp Wranglers at Godfrey Daniels -featuring Lenny Kaye!
![Getting ready to go LIVE on Gene Shay's Folk Show on Philadelphia's WXPN. With the Midnight Creeps: Alan Landes, Karl Frick and Ellen Houle.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/d652648a-5c86-4395-9b32-ac6dd02e51ce/1929643_1269150930967_1184752_n.jpg)
Getting ready to go LIVE on Gene Shay's Folk Show on Philadelphia's WXPN. With the Midnight Creeps: Alan Landes, Karl Frick and Ellen Houle.
![The charter version of the Blue Tarp Wranglers on our last gig as The Midnight Creeps. Alan Landes, JM, Josh Kanusky and Nick Franclik.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/644c0b218426fb0a0b5c5f14/b2ec5291-ceb9-4f1f-aa10-f18cba8b8bbb/19594_1076766739007208_1396076785886723466_n.jpg)
The charter version of the Blue Tarp Wranglers on our last gig as The Midnight Creeps. Alan Landes, JM, Josh Kanusky and Nick Franclik.