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2023 looks like it is going to be a great year.

Gigs, Gigs, and More Gigs

Austin Jimmy Murphy is an award-winning musician and author. Originally, from Syracuse, NY, he now resides in El Paso, TX. He is the founder of both the New York State Blues Festival (Syracuse, NY - festival director from 1992-2004, and 2014), and the Syracuse Irish Festival (1998-2003). For his efforts Murphy was presented with the Keeping the Blues Alive award by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN. He is also the recipient of two SAMMYs (Syracuse Area Music Awards), one for the NYS Blues Festival and one for his 4-CD box set, A History of Blues, and the Service to the Arts award from the Syracuse Cultural Resources Council.

His repertoire consists of a mix of blues, jazz, country, and Americana. His latest CDs, Blues Salad: The Avocado Sessions Part One includes select songs from the award-winning box set A History of Blues, and Diddle, a collection of original jazz instrumentals. Austin Jimmy Murphy performed nearly 80 dates in 2022 in El Paso, New Mexico, and New York, including the Las Cruces Summer Concert Series and the Southern New Mexico State Fair and several dates at NM Vintage Wines, the Don Felix Café, La Vina Winery, Zin Valle Winery, Public House 28 Brewery, New York State Winter Fair, the famous Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Armory Square, Hanover Square, and many more locations. You can watch a live video by clicking the video link on this page.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone..

AVAILABLE NOW! Click on the book to learn more.

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.

 

GO TO THE "BOOKS" PAGE OR TO THE "MY STORE" LINK TO FIND OUT MORE

                                 

 

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