PAUL MURPHY

INFLUENCES: TOO MANY TO MENTION

"Is it true that Paul Murphy is working in a Manchester laundry? He was praised by John Lee Hooker at the Marquee Club. Now that is praise indeed!" CityBeat (Lowdown P16) 7th April 1966

That was me at sixteen, running from home with my guitar and a handful of songs. Three months after I'd jumped the night steamer out of Belfast I made it to London. Van Morrison put me up and introduced me to the Southern Music. They bought some songs and paid me a cash advance. I played my London debut at the Marquee Club. It was a rite of passage that confirmed what I needed to know - I was a songwriter. And so I turned from Tin Pan Alley to the open road hungry for inspiration to feed the habit, answerable to no-one but the muse, walking the tight rope between imagination and experience in pursuit of authenticity and beauty.

Forty years later I'm still on that road. It has taken many twists and turns but song writing remains the constant by which I try to scratch my mark on time, like a primative with a flint etching on the rockface. Now the digital age has provided me with a way of distributing my scratchings to those who might be interested, direct and without compromise. And The Glen, a new album, provides the incentive. It is dedicated to Honora McIntyre, (1950-1999) my lover and wife for many years.

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