JACK MURRAY | Musician

“Blue Tuxedo” is finally about to be out there and heard!

The Kickstarter campaign was a Success! I’m so grateful for all the support and encouragements! Pledges are still welcome and appreciated. We’re keeping the doors open for pledges until October 15th via Venmo. @Jack-Murray-32

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Coming Attractions

Loose Talk…

“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, Del McCoury, Linda Ronstadt and many 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.

“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 happy to announce that I’m almost ready to release a record I’d made in Nashville with Thomm Jutz a few years back. Thanks so much to all who’ve supported this effort with their pledges and encouragements, making this Kickstarter campaign a success. Every good wish and every dollar made the difference. We hit the All or Nothing mark with some late pledges in the last hour. We cleared the bar by just Twenty dollars!

We knew what the fixed costs of the manufacturing and promotion would be. It seemed like such a long shot, we chose to set the budget about 25% lower that known costs to improve our chances of hitting the All or Nothing mark. And, should we be lucky enough to get that far, we thought there would be an outside chance of making up the difference with late pledges.

At this point -we have just enough to get the promotion machinery idling happily. It’s a bit like winning a luxury car with only three wheels. I find myself shuttling between feelings of gratitude and relief that we made it this far and the need to find the last 25% (and the 4th wheel) to get this machine on the Road.

Late pledges are most welcome -and can still be made via Venmo until October 15th. @Jack-Murray-32

You’re going to like this record. Thomm Jutz is amazing. He’s since become a Grammy award nominee. I felt good about the songs I took to his Mt. Juliet studio. I didn’t know who the players would be -or (I’m embarrassed to say) anything about them until after they drove off three and a half hours later. Other that they were all fantastically good. Thomm and I played all the guitars. Thomm sang all the background harmonies. He produced, and mixed the whole thing. The session band was a killer: Dave Francis on Fender and acoustic bass, Lynn Williams on drums and percussion and “utility man” Justin Moses -on fiddle, banjo and Dobro. Wow.

The funds will be used to release “Blue Tuxedo” -ready for digital play and tracking. Most of the funds will be used to promote it effectively to a broader audience. The record 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. David learned the song from a preview copy of this same recording.

I plan 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 hope, as well, to lay the groundwork for recording a wave of new songs I’m writing that I’m getting excited about.

In the years since its recording, this record has been accruing some rather impressive mojo. “Blue Tuxedo” -the extraordinary David Olney story aside -has been praised by some of my musical heroes, including some of my Nashville Music Row songwriting heroes: Thom Schuyler, Craig Bickhardt, Don Henry, Jack Sundrud, Michael Johnson and Tony Arata ~all with whom I’ve had the honor of swapping songs on stage at a number of Bluebird Cafe-style In-The-Round concerts at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, PA.

The Nashville tracks still exist only on home-burned copies made for friends. An official recording has never been released, publicized or promoted.

Until now! I’m really excited about finally getting this done.

Thank you for taking this ride with me!

~Jack