BOBBY
MURRAY
Perhaps
you heard his guitar work on "The Sopranos" or seen him on
the Tonight Show, Austin City Limits or Late Night w/Letterman. If you've
seen Etta James perform in the last twenty years, you've seen and heard
Bobby. As Robert Santelli of Downbeat says,"He's the one that makes
you take notice." When legendary diva Etta James was on the lookout
for a blues guitarist to augment her Roots Band in 1988, it was Bobby
Murray who got the call. Shuffling his duties between Etta and his own
band, the transplanted Californian's latest offering, "Live and
Lowdown" leads his Detroit-based blues ensemble into yet another
soundscape of this distinctly American genre. Few blues guitarists working
today possess the versatility Bobby commands and fewer still have the
ability to move an audience as he can.
Born in Nagoya Japan, Murray grew up in a military family whose international
travels eventually brought them to Tacoma Washington. It was there that
Murray befriended Robert Cray and they played in a band together throughout
high school. The entertainment at their graduation was none other than
Albert Collins, who would later become both friend and mentor to the
young Murray. He performed off and on with Collins for the next twenty
years. Although Albert is no longer with us, he continues to inspire
Murray today. Bobby would later record with B.B. King and Robert Cray
on the aptly titled "Playing With My Friends" on King's Grammy
award-winning album, "Blues Summit." Blues and soul legends
Murray has performed or recorded with include John Lee Hooker, Johnny
Guitar Watson, Lowell Fulson, Taj Mahal, Otis Rush, Percy Mayfield,
Charlie Musselwhite, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Clay, Sugar Pie Desanto and
a host of others. You can check out Bobby's guitar work on numerous
Etta James recordings, including Grammy winners "Let's Roll"
and "Blues to the Bone." Murray released his debut album "The
Blues is Now" in 1996 on the now defunct Viceroy label. He moved
to Detroit soon afterward and began recording and performing with the
latest incarnation of the Bobby Murray Band.
"The
boy is bad!" - Etta James
"He's
so powerful, man!" - B.B. King
"Bobby
is the real deal - the product of a love for a tradition that he both
honors and applauds."
- David Ritz, Grammy award-winning writer and
biographer
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