THE GUARDIAN (UK), "KNOCKED SIDEWAYS BY JOHN MURRY," NAMES 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ONE OF 2013'S BEST

The Guardian (UK) has named John Murry's 'The Graceless Age' (Evangeline Recording Co.) one of 2013's best, with critic Michael Hann writing, "I was knocked sideways by John Murry's 'The Graceless Age.'

Murry will perform July 20 at Dilettante Studios in Los Angeles and August 4 at the Art & Soul Festival in Oakland and shortly, he will announce details of a national tour opening for Shuggie Otis.

BLACK BOOK, ESQUIRE & LONDON TIMES PREVIEW MISSISSIPPI-BORN, FAULKNER-RELATED, AVANT-NOIR NEWCOMER JOHN MURRY AT SXSW

ESQUIRE: MURRY AMONG THE "BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR FROM SXSW"

THE LONDON TIMES: "HE LOOKS SET TO BECOME ONE OF THE INDUSTRY EVENT'S BREAKOUT STARS"

BLACK BOOK: "WITH AN ARRESTING SENSE OF HONESTY AND HUMAN INSIGHT, MURRY IS A MAN YOU SHOULD CERTAINLY GET TO KNOW"

Esquire, Black Book, and the London Times have all previewed avant-noir newcomer John Murry's SXSW this week on the strength of his forthcoming album 'The Graceless Age' (April 2 / Evangeline Recording Co.). Esquire named Murry among the "bands you need to hear from SXSW."

Postable streaming song "The Ballad of the Pajama Kid."

"California" music video.

Meanwhile, The London Times called 'The Graceless Age "images of broken-hearted gutter life over ten elegant and spacious songs." Here's a scan.

London Times direct link (password required).

Black Book Magazine ran a fascinating Q&A with the songwriter yesterday. Hillary Weston writes, "With an arresting sense of honesty and human insight, Murry is man that you should certainly get to know… his songs cut straight to into the heart of man steeped in emotion, with the psychological undercurrent of soul in distress. Born from the pain of loneliness and a desire for expression, Murry's solo debut The Graceless Age is a raw and emotional collection of autobiographical stories. Sonically exercising his demons, his voice croons through a record that amalgamates the bleak and the beautiful, the desolate and the serene, and the questions of existence that plague us all."

Murry plays Friday at 2:45pm at the Daily Havoc Day Party, Hole in the Wall, 2538 Guadalupe St. (front stage). RSVP or more info here.

SOLD OUT SHOWS, BBC APPEARANCES, & BLOG RAVES GREET FIRST UK & IRISH TOUR FOR "MASTERFUL" (BAEBLE MUSIC) JOHN MURRY

"MASTERPIECE" (UNCUT) 'THE GRACELESS AGE' OUT APRIL 2 IN THE US ON EVANGELINE RECORDING CO.

John Murry – William Faulkner's second cousin and performer of the "masterpiece" (UNCUT) 'The Graceless Age' (April 2 / Evangeline Recording Co.) – is completing his first tour of the UK and Ireland. He has sold out shows in Belfast, Glasgow, Winchester, and London, with a line of fans turned away at the latter show January 29.

Murry also performed on BBC Radio Ulster with respected DJ Ralph McLean as well as BBC Radio Scotland while UK blogs have continued to gush over 'The Graceless Age.' Mad Mackeral posted a Q&A.

Another blog, Fractured Air, called the concert "amagical night."

He's also been confirmed for the End of the Road Festival in Dorset, UK, which kicks off at the end of August.

The Belfast Telegraph termed Murry "a class apart" and he has also been the subject of features such as this on in the Oxford Times, which tell his vibrant, unbelievable story.

Some in the United States have caught on. Baeble Music posted the mp3 for "The Ballad of the Pajama Kid" alongside the music video for "California," calling Murry "masterful."

Spinner also posted the video.

FOR JOHN MURRY, DUELING BASSES, A BOWED GUITAR, BELLS, VIBES, ORGAN, AND GUILT CONJURE "CALIFORNIA"

"California," the intense, guilt-ridden John Murry song for which buzzy British blog The Line of Best Fit premiered the music video, started taking its final shape only when two scratch bass parts meant as an either/or proposition fit together as one.

Here's the embeddable music video.

The song appears on 'The Graceless Age,' out April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. in the US. The album was among the best of 2012 in the UK from UNCUT Magazine, the BBC, and elsewhere.

The master built on basslines from an old Jerry Jones longhorn semi-hollowbody bass (of which Murry cryptically says "has a hell of a story of it's own, involving bank robberies and exploding dye packs and prison time"). Murry says, "I think that, of all the songs on The Graceless Age, it exemplifies what Tim [Mooney, co-producer] and I did together best. We'd built an entire song off of an out-of-tune bass, which accidentally helps give it that kinda drone-y, hypnotic quality. When we went to play everything else we did, like bells, vibes, and organ, Tim and I would have to pitch shift everything. It became a method, almost, limiting us to certain instruments and forcing us to experiment with messing with various organic instruments' sounds to create the sounds we'd normally get from specific instruments."

Murry says, "We stole the handclaps from another session we'd been working on for another band and then built the drum loop. Then we overdubbed the percussion. I played a bunch of weird guitar using an actual bow, an ebow, and a brass slide and wah to imitate the sustain of an ebow, and we reversed it on tape and made it warble by varying the speed, then recorded it again as it was being varied. We got the vocals done. It happened so quickly." Later, Sean Coleman overdubbed a piano part, which had to pitch-shifted from a piano that was slightly flat.

The writing came to Murry all at once. He recalls, "I was becoming addicted to narcotics – I'd begun abusing Percocet and Percodan and Vicodin and the like – and wrote it in a 30 minute wave of time; the kind of time I think Tom Waits is describing when he talks about songs 'coming through the window if you leave it open.'"

Contrary to the song's refrain ("I swear it ain't you; It's California I can't stand)," Murry confesses, "It's a bit of self-deception. California, as a State, isn't to blame for what happened. I am."

JOHN MURRY'S 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ONE OF 2012'S BEST-REVIEWED ALBUMS IN THE UK, OUT APRIL 2 IN THE U.S. ON EVANGLINE RECORDING CO.

ONE OF EIGHT FINALISTS FOR UNCUT MUSIC AWARD ALONGSIDE FATHER JOHN MISTY, BOB DYLAN, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

British press has unequivocally raved about John Murry's 'The Graceless Age,' which made UNCUT's final eight list for 2012 UNCUT Music Award album of the year alongside names like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Father John Misty. In fact, UNCUT's Allan Jones ranked it second only to Dylan in his personal list of the top twenty albums of the year. A full interview with Uncut can be read here: http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/uncut-editors-diary/interview-john-murry

Murry's debut album, coproduced by Tim Mooney of Sun Kil Moon, will see US release April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. Here's what's being said across the pond:

"A dark, festering masterpiece....guitars crackle throughout like static, dissonant transmissions from the rim of things, sonic squall and ruptures.  The effect is often always symphonic..."
9/10 'Album Of Month' UNCUT

"Like Father John Misty, Mark Lanegan and Josh T Pearson rolled into one really broken dream..."
4**** Q Magazine

"Occasionally an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one...
5***** THE SUN

"This dark, brooding second album delivers some gently mesmerising meditations...."
THE MIRROR

"As brown as the Mississippi and as fraught with undercurrents..."
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

"A genuine American masterpiece...."
R2 MAGAZINE

"This is an album that fearlessly exposes his dark past through songs that are powerful and healing. A remarkable album..."
ELECTRIC GHOST

""A dark cousin to Brian Wilsons' California dreaming perhaps, with the dense and elaborate Southern Sky a contender for song of the year as it pounds and insinuates its way into the listener's brain."
BLABBER & SMOKE

""Astonishingly complex sounds woven together here that will take a long time to reveal all the secrets of their making."
FLYING SHOES

"A true classic in every way and one that is destined to be heard through the ages. Album of the year, without a doubt."
ECHOES & DUST

AFTER FIRESTORM OF U.K. RAVES AND UNCUT MUSIC AWARD NOMINATION, U.S. RELEASE CONFIRMED MARCH 5 FOR JOHN MURRY'S 'THE GRACELESS AGE' ON EVANGELINE RECORDING CO.

LAST ALBUM PRODUCED BY TIM MOONEY (SUN KIL MOON, AMERICAN MUSIC CLUB)

"LIKE FATHER JOHN MISTY, MARK LANEGAN, AND JOSH T PEARSON ROLLED INTO ONE REALLY BROKEN DREAM." – Q MAGAZINE

After a firestorm of U.K. raves, John Murry's 'The Graceless Age' has been confirmed for April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. It's the last album co-produced by Tim Mooney of American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon before his death June 13, in collaboration with Murry.

Check out the embeddable "California" music video, dedicated to Mooney.

'The Graceless age' is one of eight albums nominated for an UNCUT Music Award and praise has been effusive on the other side of the pond, where Murry is launching a winter tour shortly. MOJO is planning a feature. The Sun gave it 5 stars out of 5, saying, "Occasionally, an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one… A genuine tour de force." In another 5 star (out of 5) review, R2 called it "a genuine American masterpiece." In a 9 star (out of 10) review, UNCUT  described the "deeply textured… ruined grandeur," continuing, "This is what 'The Graceless Age' as a whole does so unforgettably, beating honest witness to a burning world."

The album brings together organic and synthetic elements to create its own despairing, lush soundscape from female vocals cradling the ashes of John's cigarette-stained drawl to loops of electric guitar feedback over his howl; from an answering machine message to insistent, creeping synthesizer; from CB radio samples to a violin; and from an alarm's swells to a warm acoustic guitar. Moments on 'The Graceless Age' can be compared to eels, Sparklehorse, and Beck's 'Sea Change' but these stories burn true in Murry's own writing and singing.

Now based in Oakland, CA, John Murry has lived many lives. He grew up in Elvis' hometown of Tupelo, MS and there's a photo of Elvis in concert that shows his mother reaching out to touch his hand. He was a junkie after he left Memphis to go to that den of iniquity, California. He wrote for the Village Voice for a time. He is William Faulkner's second cousin and friends have described him as lost in the worlds of southern literature. He has seen death in an alley and managed to stumble back from it. These identities come together in 'The Graceless Age.'