One of my new most favorite venues.
You are visitor number: 6750
One of my new most favorite venues.
Great to be back. Bringing the 4-piece with Albert Vallejo, Curt Bushaw and Mike Middleton.
Love this place. Cold freshly brewed beer and great food.
One of my favorite locations to perform.
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Lescombes Winery and Bistro, 1720 Avenida de Mesilla , Las Cruces, New Mexico 88005
Love playing at Zin Valle Vinyard. I truly appreciate it.
Forward by Mary Jo Melby
Past President, El Paso Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters
James Robert (Jim) Murphy is a Renaissance Man. The term “Renaissance Man” has been defined as a person with many talents or areas of knowledge. Jim certainly epitomizes this description. He is a poet, yes, but also a songwriter, a painter, has authored five books, plays guitar and sings - solo and with a variety of musical groupings.
But what makes a true Renaissance Man goes way beyond just possessing the aforementioned talents. It takes tenacity - putting your assets into action. Jim does this. He jumps into life at the moment of inspiration and just paints or sings or writes. While many talented people think about creating, Jim creates.
Coming from a youth filled with adventure and sometimes even danger, Jim writes from the heart and experiences. I believe that many of us would agree that it’s when we are in those formative young years that emotions are felt so deeply. Because Jim kept journals during much of his life he is able to recall so many of his feelings in a very real way.
Poetry from a Road Scholar reminds us of the close way in which all of the arts are connected. We see the conductor leading his orchestra while visualizing different colors and the artist painting to the inspiration of his favorite music. Magical!!
Sit back and enjoy and the fun as Jim Murphy takes us to places only a poet such as he can travel.
NEWS ... Poetry from a Road Scholar is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Christianbooks.com
Poetry from a Road Scholar was selected for print by Wipf and Stock Publishers out of Eugene, Oregon. It is a collection of 86 poems/song lyrics that were written as I hitchhiked back and forth across this great nation during the 1970s and 1980s. A time when I was searching for love and of course, searching to find myself. I have found love, but I am still struggling now and then with the things I have learned about myself.
Beginning when I was 16 years old hiding in my bedroom with my Kingston acoustic guitar I have been writing music. "Writing" is a loose term for scribbling lyrics in a notebook and placing a 'G', 'C' and 'D' over the words where the chord changes take place.
After nearly 50 years of this tactic, I have begun to revisit my stack of 17 songbooks and began selecting my favorite pieces in the folk, country, jazz/pop, rock and blues genres. In 2012 I released a compilation 4-CD box set of mostly original blues, called, A History of Blues (available on my Music page). It is a history of the varied styles of blues I have penned beginning in 1972. It features tremendous studio and live performances of many of Upstate NY's finest blues players. Overall, this has encompassed roughly six recording sessions: The 820 Sessions, music from a livingroom session held at 820 Avery Ave. in Syracuse, NY. The 2920 Sessions held here in El Paso, TX. The If Trouble Was Money Sessions (Syracuse) - named after an Albert Collins tune. The South Side of Blue Sessions (Syracuse), The Last Blue Note Sessions, and The Hotel/Motel/Apartment Sessions (recorded anywhere and everywhere). Here are my notebooks. I actually think I am missing one.