JMQ
the Joe McMurrian Quartet
Official Web site: WWW.Joemcmurrian.Com
BIO
The quartet - Joe McMurrian (guitar, Banjo, vocals), Jimi Bott (drums) – Fabulous Thunderbirds, Mark Hummel, Rod Piazza, Jason Honl (bass) – Pieces, Big Mouth Bass, and
David Lipkind (harmonica) - Spigot, SOB, Mad Hattie
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JMQ Live at the WHite Eagle is a deep mix of Delta/Hill country blues power as only this band can do, delicate finger-style slide arrangements, and vocal infused scenes of talking rivers, loves trickery, dogs with gills, smoke building windows, failed preachers, Coo Coo birds, L.A ,leather and stone cast across Mahogany soaked sound waves.
The Joe McMurrian Quartet is a rapidly growing outfit from the Northwest - Portland Oregon. With his new band in tow, The Joe McMurrian Quartet have just released "JMQ - Joe McMurrian Quartet Live at the White Eagle", which spotlights seven new songs as well as some highly re-arranged traditionals, all weaved into the sonic fabric of the truly unique JMQ sound.
Together as a collective, JMQ is massive machine of sound –Redefining traditional American Blues Based music while also redefining the scope of the road ahead. Imagine If Robert Johnson had heard Hendrix and had hooked up with Jack Bruce, John Bonham and Walter Horton – mix in contemporary songwriting and one of a kind improvisational musical performances and you have a truly amazing band.
Before forming JMQ, McMurrian released 2006's, "Rain of Days", which was voted the #2 best independent blues release of 2006 by the International Blues Foundation of Memphis as well as reaching the #5 slot on Japan's Tower Records chart.
"...Rich, muddy Delta bottom of blues sources, and onward past the limitations of the form to a more progressive sound, one open to original material as relevant as that of any contemporary, folk-based singer-songwriter.....last year’s studio effort, Rain of Days , and the brand-new Live at the White Eagle— are both truly rewarding listens. McMurrian’s shown impressive growth as a songwriter; his words have become as musical as his guitar playing is lyrical…Some very expansive moments here "
Willamette Week - Jeff Rosenberg, Oregonian music review, Portland. 2007
"We are a progressive blues based band," says McMurrian about the quartet's sound. "Influenced by all music and a whole lot of old American music like the blues, But what we do is anything but regular traditional blues; it's new blues based on the reality that sound does not stick, it grows and flows in it's own tradition which gives us allot of freedom to make music in the expanding tradition of Delta Country Blues, but not as if we had never heard Dylan, Zeppelin, Waits, Coltrane or Hendrix. It’s all one lineage, American Music"
Progressive high energy music, Gut wrenching emotion and energy transitioning to graceful melodies, complex harmonies and challenging meter changes make for the most powerful Roots/Blues music around. The sound is rooted in Delta Blues and Old American Roots music, but it is weaved into a modern concept of improvisation and original story telling that owes as much to John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin as it does to Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, R.L Burnside or Bert Jansch. JMQ is the new face of American Roots & Blues music, one that crosses limiting musical boundaries, trivialities and fads and soars up within the infinity of sound.
" Joe McMurrian is a great, gritty singer and a fluid fingerstyle guitarist with more than a little Delta influence in his sound - and the artistic moxie to make it sound fresh yet timeless"
Oregonian, John Foyston A&E Oregonian music review, Portland.2006
”Joe’s guitar playing and singing have that rare quality of unearthly wisdom and understanding. Joe is joined by three of Portland’s most innovative musicians and the connection is as immediate and natural as thunder and lightning…” says Radio host Brad Brenner of Portland’s KMHD 89.1 FM
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Contact:
Official Web site: WWW.Joemcmurrian.Com
E-Mail: Joemcmurrian@yahoo.com
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