Chris Murphy – interview
Chris Murphy is an exceptional fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist with more than two decades of touring and making music. With his latest record, he let the fans interests create the track list, and the result was a smorgasbord of Chris Murphy’s range. We had a chance to catch up with Chris for a brief interview.
Americana Highways: Can you tell us more about your new album The Road and the Stars?
Chris Murphy: The road and the stars is a retrospective album pulled from the last 10 years of my recording career. It’s the most requested & favorite songs my fans.
AH: What do you want people to take away from this collection?
CM: It’s a good introduction to the body of my work, which has a tendency to be very broad. It has some folk music on there, some country, some Irish, some blues, bluegrass and some swing, basically a typical night at one of my shows lol
AH: Can you elaborate a bit more on why you chose to re-release these songs?
CM: Over the years fans have requested these songs so I kind of kept a soft list of it, so when it came time to pull the album together, I had a pretty good idea what people like, I also feel strongly about these songs, as they’re some of my favorites and it’s also a good cross section of my writing and playing
AH: What does your album title mean to you: The Road and the Stars?
CM: The road and the stars are two meaningful words for me, as I’m constantly traveling, and I love the pull & mystery of the open road, and I love the vastness & inspiration of the stars at night
AH: How is this album unique?
I have 19 albums out and they’re all very different and the idea hadn’t really occurred to me to do a compilation, but I thought it was a good idea in between my last album Two Rivers Crossing and my next album. In addition, I’m touring a lot and didn’t wanna travel with a
lot of different albums, doing this seemed like a good idea, the song selections are pulled from my last five or six albums, and are a good representation of my current live show.
AH: I noticed you are touring the UK for the month of July and I also noticed you tour Hawaii often too. What is your following like in each of those areas?
CM: Growing!!
AH. I see you also tour just quite a bit in general. What is your favorite thing about touring?
CM: I love seeing different parts of the world and meeting different people but mostly I just love the challenge of trying to connect with everybody every night and put on as magical experience as I can for two hours with just a violin, microphone & my songs.
AH: What is your favorite place or area to tour?
I like it everywhere! Each part of the world offer something beautiful and unique and each community is a chance for me to connect
AH: Is there one place you’ve been that you would stay longer in, if you could pause your life for awhile?
CM: Right now I’m at a place in my life where I want to see more places and perform for as many different people as I can, I’m definitely interested in going to Japan.
AH: You mentioned you are a multi-genre artist, singer/songwriter and that roots-rock, celtic, bluegrass, folk, world, blues, and jazz are all represented. What is your favorite genre of music to perform (and if there is one, why)?
CM: Definitely Chris Murphy Music lol!!!
AH: As a multi-instrumentalist who plays violin, mandolin, guitar, and percussion, you mainly play violin. But is the violin your favorite instrument to play?
CM: I can play guitar and me and Dwayne and percussion and it is great, but I really think of myself as a violinist, and while I’m hardly the best violinist in the world, I feel very connected to the instrument, and have been working hard and developing my own sound and style on it, I’m really intrigued by trying to make as much music on the instrument as I can.
AH: What is coming up in the near future for Chris Murphy?
CM: More gigs, more songs, more magical nights, more experience, more life!! ONWARD!!!
Thanks very much for chatting with us, Chris Murphy!
Find his tour dates and more information here: https://chrismurphymusic.com
Enjoy our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Chris Murphy “The Road To The Stars”