Murray Attaway

Tense Music Plays

Moon Ray Sound

Murray Thomas Attaway (born November 30th, 1957) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for the Marietta, Georgia, alternative jangle pop rock band Guadalcanal Diary. After the band’s breakup, Attaway recorded one solo album titled “In Thrall,” which was released by DGC Records in 1993. Attaway is also a film composer, having written music for a number of independent films and TV shows. Attaway was born in Atlanta, Ga., and attended Marietta High School. In 2019, Attaway created the satirical “Dazzle Dudes” podcast, which tells the fictional story of a group of inept young males who attempt to start a glam rock band in 1970’s Georgia. The show is written, performed, and produced by Attaway. The album was recorded by Attaway at Orlok Labs East in Atlanta and Orlok Labs West in Palos Verdes, California. All songs were written by Attaway, except for one co-writer, who also sings and plays guitar on all tracks. He is accompanied by bassist and drummer Robert Schmid (The Swimming Pool Q’s) and violinist Ana Balka.

The album opens with “Breath” with the lyric “And it almost takes my breath away… what was lost is never found.”. On “Stars Behind the Moon” with violin, Attaway sings, “I thought it was stars behind the moon, but it’s just a voice in a lonely room.”. “Hole in the Ground,” “you got to try to stand it, stand up straight, try like a clown, might as well crawl in a hole in the ground.”. “Better Days” is a song of nostaglia and joy: “One half-time we’ll dance and shine…raise your voice and let your soul rejoice…and will say we’ll do with better days.”.

“Never Far Away” is about a loved one’s mental decline “I was thinking of days when there was music in the air…I guess I dream too much, but whenever I’m dreaming, I’m never far away”. Attaway states that “Old Christmas” “was pulled from Appalachian folklore about the Epiphany (the twelve days after Christmas).

“Stranger,” “All the lonely places I have known…no man sits down in the road to wait…and everyday is a long, hard ride, miracles are dreams and water, and stranger is the mirror that I stare into…I’m chosen with reflection. Where are the dreams that I was born into? All the empty spaces I have known. Travel down these empty halls. Rumor has it just inside and stranger.”. On the closer “You Were There,” Attaway plays guitar as he chants, “I just know how blind I was… darkness all around, I was down, you were there…I was down, everywhere.”.

Attaway spent two years writing and arranging the songs on “Tense Music Plays.”. Attaway’s uniquely poetic landscape is on display, as he states, “It’s always been my goal to do music that goes somewhere different, but it invariably ends up in my yard.”. And that’s a very good yard.

Richard Ludmerer

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