Austin Jimmy Murphy with Curt Bushaw – Recorded Live at The Black Orchid Lounge
BLBM Publishing
8 Tracks – 39 minutes
James Robert “Jimmy” Murphy is a native of Syracuse, New York, where he was the principal founder and the director of the New York State Blues Festival in Syracuse from 1992 to 2003 and again in 2014. He also was a founder of the Guiness Irish Festival, now known as the Syracuse Irish Festival, from 1998 – 2003. He hitchhiked across the US for more than a decade after his high school graduation in 1972 always with guitar and songbook at hand. He holds an MA from the University of Oklahoma in administrative leadership. The Austin part of his title was given to him after returning to Syracuse from a three-year stint in Austin in the 80’s. He now resides in El Paso, Texas where he became a founding member of the El Paso Blues Society. In 2003, he received the Keeping Blues Alive Award from the Blues Foundation for Best Promoter/Festivals. His recordings range from jazz to a Spanish language album to folk and blues.
Curt Bushaw is a jazz bass player from North Dakota who also now resides in El Paso. He studied education at the Valley City State University in North Dakota and subsequently became a teacher at Ysleta ISD in El Paso. He presently is the Director of Bands Desert Winds at Socorro Independent School District. Although a jazz player, Curt’s bass finds the right connection to Jimmy’ guitar work on the recording.
The album is a live unfiltered recording from October 6, 2018, which Jimmy recently re-discovered. The Black Orchid was a small club in a strip mall in El Paso that closed following COVID. Jimmy notes that the shaker that you sometimes hear in the background is a not a percussionist out of time with the music, but rather is the bartender mixing drinks. Jimmy’s guitar and Curt’s bass are the sole instruments on the album.
The album opens with a cover of Lowell Fulson’s 1981 song “Reconsider Baby”. Jimmy’s liner notes indicates that he presently plays this song as a jazz/swing track but here presents it from a blues perspective noting Eric Clapton performed it on his From the Cradle album. Jimmy’s guitar starts with a jazz flourish before it moves into a blues vocal. Curt does provide a solo bass lead midway through the song. An original song from Jimmy, “The Funky Thing”, he says was originally written in 1995 which he says has been modified many times over the years. He asks her “to come on back” and in a throwback in history, tells her, “If you want to talk to me, take out a quarter and stick it into the slot”. Next up is a cover of Big Joe Williams “Baby Please Don’t Go”, first recorded by Joe in 1935 and since recorded by many other artists including Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins.
Another original, “Hello”, was written in 1977 “in his finger-picking days while living in New York City” and is a welcome to a young woman he met in Alexandria Bay at the Canadian border. “When The Morning Comes” again features his fingerpicking style. He asks her “won’t you come” as he is ready to hit the road. He says he wrote this when he was traveling in his old Dodge van. A cover of Little Walter’s 1959 version of “Everything’s Going to Be Alright” (title as shown, but the original recording from Walter shows as “Everything Gonna Be Alright”).
“My Baby She Loves Me” was written in 1988 after he had been married a couple of years. He notes that 36 years later she again does have a “brand new car”, but she does not have “the pile of cash” he cites in the song. They close the album with Louis Jordan’s 1945 song, “Caledonia”. Curt offers a second bass lead during this song.
While there is some slight noise from the cited bartender and some minor crowd talking, this a fairly clean recording and the noise level is never such that it takes away from the performance. Jimmy has a smooth vocal approach and his guitar wavers from pure blues to a slight jazz touch. Curt’s bass blends in nicely with Jimmy’s guitar. Jimmy’s discovery of the album was certainly an excellent find and well represents his talents.
