A Father's Story of His Son's Musical Journey !

Like every parent, I wanted all my 3 children to succeed, which they did, but one's career has totally fascinated me and changed me - Music !

The following is a story taken from the script of a video produced by a gentleman named Gabriel Judet-Weinshel, which was made available by sharing.

I took the liberty of editing down to a size appropriate for a Patch Article and because the story is not current I added some updates.

For 25 years, and with no sign of slowing, violinist Chris Murphy has made a living by writing, performing and recording original music. For Murphy, the path forward is charted by looking backward, to the troubadours and minstrels of ages past. Forget the exaggerated reports of the music industry’s demise. It’s only the record industry, a relative blip in the history of putting tones in sequence, that’s suffering. Music, and the opportunity to make a life’s work out of it, well, that’s not going anywhere.

“In another era,” he says, “I would have played square dances, and loved it. I would have been a court musician in Versailles in the 17th Century, or a violinist in a circus orchestra.” For Chris Murphy, inspiration spans eras and aesthetics, but the fundamentals are the same.

Born into an Irish-Italian family near New York City, Murphy was surrounded by the disparate and eclectic sounds of his neighbors’ traditional music. “I heard and was influenced by everything – from Italian-mandolin music, to bluegrass and folk, to Latin music,” he says. Inevitably, he discovered rock ‘n’ roll, claiming still further influence from some of rock’s most adventurous and eclectic icons: Lou Reed and Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson. “My real hero,” he says, “was David Lindley. Hearing him play fiddle and lap steel with Jackson Browne — that kind of esoteric, enigmatic soloing over songs is originally what I loved.”

He learned about Turkish and Indian music at Simon’s Rock of Bard College and then studied composition at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. A longtime instrumental dabbler, Murphy has mostly taught himself how to play percussion, guitar and mandolin, even some Eastern instruments, but he found his proper match at 22, when he picked up the violin. “It’s the one instrument you’ll find anywhere you go,” he says. “And it has a wonderful, charming kind of minstrel quality. I love all the myths surrounding it.”

Eventually, Murphy did as so many American adventure seekers had done before him: He sought his fortune in the West. Now based in Los Angeles, Murphy earns his living by teaching — guitar, mandolin and violin — working on music for films, and, mostly, by performing his work for audiences.

And that’s hardly at the exclusion of recording. To wit, Murphy has amassed a deep catalog of 500+ works, 16 solo and 20 collaborative albums, and made cameo appearances on records by Har Mar Superstar and The Dandy Warhols, among others.

In the last year alone, Murphy has written and recorded six new albums in a vast array of styles. Chris has also been featured on television programs such as ‘Til Death and The Ellen Degeneres Show; his diverse and chameleon-like talents make him a sought after composer and collaborator for film and television. A modern-day troubadour and considered a colossus of Americana, Cyrus Rhodes of No Depression considers Murphy “one of the best songwriters in popular music unjustly flying under the radar.” He is a new artist collaborator with Friendly Folk Records with his recent 2021 album titled SOVEREIGN.

He is that rare breed of musician that creates and performs in a multitude of music worlds with ease. As he searches for new ways to communicate through music, fusing styles and techniques from across the globe — a unique fabric of world music, he calls it — Murphy finds his element on the stage, where spontaneity and improvisation reign. “To me, the music is liquid, and I’m looking to have some kind of experience," he says. “I’ll twist and turn, and hammer and mold, and shape, cut and paste the music to do that. We’ve never done a song the same way twice.” As ever, Murphy re-forges the past to make a new way. He has performed in more than 40 states in the USA, England, Ireland, and The Netherlands.

Now it's about me, his Father !

Chris' career has brought me into the incredibly fascinating world of the universal language of music, not just sounds, but lyrics also. It's almost infinite in magnitude and more potent than I would have ever believed. It has the power to find its way into the our thoughts, moods, feelings.

It can give us sorrow, pride, in a church or Temple, at a funeral or wedding, and as an old Marine be stopped by TAPS. It can be a dealing roar at a Rock & Roll stadium or...anything, any where, any time, etc.

My early years as an Electrical Engineer, a Marine, a Politician/Law Maker, etc. were dominated by words and numbers, now I have music that has given me one more dimension of life.

Chris now lives in Santa Monica in Southern California, but comes East annually to visit with the Family and have a North East Music Tour starting with Rockland, at the historic Turning Point in Piermont on Wednesday & Thursday, November 9th & 10th [845-359-1091 Wed to Fri from 2 PM to 5 PM for Required Reservations $20.20] and at the Rockland Conservatory of Music on Saturday November 12th [845-356-1522 for Reservations $20 for adults/free for children].