Dave Murphy

A Heart So Rare

Independent

New Jersey Americana artist Dave Murphy’s seventh album “A Heart So Rare”, is a heartfelt reflection on human fallibility, it relays, the mistakes and longing of a man encountering the weight of divorce, while embracing moments of surrender, forgiveness, and mystery. There is always hope for redemption.

Murphy is a cancer survivor, and an accomplished performer who’s toured in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and the UK. He’s shared stages with Steve Forbert, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, and others. Murphy has received airplay for his last four albums on Americana radio stations across North America and Europe. He is the winner of many songwriter contests. All of the songs were written by Murphy while the album is engineered and mixed by Matt Shane at Joe’s Garage in Brooklyn, N.Y. The album is also mastered by Fred Kevorkian at Kevorkian Mastering, also in Brooklyn.

The album opens with “October Skies”. The opening track features James Maddock on backing vocals, as Murphy sings the lead and plays acoustic guitar. Also featured are Rob Clores keyboards (Lucinda Williams); Chris Tarrow, guitars; Richard Hammond, bass; and Shawn Pelton, drums (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow). “There is a place we can go, we’ve come so far, there is a place far away…it strips me raw, exposing skin and scars, the choices I have made, taking the hardest way”, as Tarrow takes a guitar solo reminiscent of The Bryds.

On “Josephine” with Mark Erelli handling the background vocal, Murphy sings “I’m sitting at the bar, I might just have one more, don’t hit me when I’m down, Josephine”. “After The Hurricane”, “I don’t wanna go back, I don’t want to go anywhere, I see most everything in a different light, don’t kick me when I’m down, Josephine, I’m not looking for another chance, we danced our last dance, the writing’s …on the wall, life goes on”, with Pelton playing accordion.

“Strawberry Red” again includes Maddock on the backing vocal, as Murphy’s beautifully sings “that’s what she said, now I’m walking alone, I’m a bird on a tree, I’ll never come down, it all just goes up in smoke, I’m o.k., I’m alright…Strawberry’s gone, she didn’t stay long, she said she’ll always be free, I wasn’t prepared, for a heart so rare”.

The dark “Planet of Pain II” featuring backing vocalist Erelli, is reprised from Murphy’s debut album, with a brand new arrangement “I thought I was through…we make all our choices…the shadows dancing on my bedroom wall…ashes to ashes, dust to dust, sometimes it feels like it’s all too much”, while Tarrow plays a pedal steel guitar.

Also reprised from his album debut, “I Wish I Could Tell” includes the lyric “I wish I could tell you, when I was a shooting star, don’t know when I’m gonna fall, time keeps goin’ by like some big surprise, I wish I could tell you, the shades are all pulled down, when you’re not around”. “If I Could Fly” again with Erelli, “flying high and free are the only way to go, If I could fly, I would surely try, no questions asked, no long goodbye”, while Tarrow plays resonator guitar, banjo and mandolin.

“Take A Ride With Me”, “nothing else matters, nothing is real, I got boxes of memories, and boxes of shame, hey baby, take a ride with me”, Todd Caldwell plays some gospel inspired organ. “Red” is a spacey tune, also reprised from an earlier album, with Ben Wisch on harmonium and Rod Clores on piano, “come a little closer, look me in the eye…but everything is changed, I know its gone, gone, gone, red is the color we all bleed, all I see is red”.

On the closer, “One More Time”, Erelli once again sings harmony and  plays harmonica; while Murphy plays guitar as he croons “is it time for this old man to walk down this dusty path…if you’ll have me…one more time, one more time”, the path forks as one path leads to a new life in the unknown, while the other path circles around for a second chance at the life once had, it’s up to the listener to decide.

Murphy states “I’m more honest with my songwriting these days”, the album is a reckoning for him, where he is in life, it’s about his own mortality, I’m telling you that there is still more time. “I put my heart and soul into this record”. Thank you Dave Murphy for this beautiful and heartfelt album.

Richard Ludmerer
Contributing Editor/Making A Scene

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