“Alex McMurray is a national treasure,” a friend from New Orleans said. I thought  my friend was kidding, but he was having a rare uncynical moment. I have since learned that a lot of people in New Orleans agree with my friend, and feel that Alex McMurray deserves a “major” music career.

In a town full of great musicians, Alex McMurray is regarded as one of the best singers, guitarists and, above all, songwriters. He is also a wit, a bulldog, and, as co-producer (with his wife Kourtney) of  Chaz Fest, a pillar of his community.

Some ladies I know say he’s kind of cute, but a little scary in his intensity sometimes.

He connects with live audiences -- hipsters or tourists; it’s what he does for a living. But it is his songs that set him apart. 

Most of them are stories, filled with dark humor, bawdiness, deep pathos and serious fun. Like all good songs, they’re best encountered through your ears, but some of Alex McMurray’s songs read very nicely, too. 

Some of Alex McMurray’s characters aren’t very nice, like the guy who wants his baby to have a baby so they can sell – oops, I gave a punch line away, or almost. Many of his songs take outrageous turns. There’s anger, shock and awe, like the Iraq vet’s reaction to post-Katrina New Orleans: “Take me back to the war.” But there’s also the moving, ultra-romantic song about those lost-forever days when the singer and his partner in crime were scuffling in New Orleans, in love like nobody else ever.
 
Alex McMurray is currently a soloist, a member of at least one duo, one trio, one quartet and a large nautical men’s chorus (six albums among these configurations), and he is a regular guest guitarist in several other bands. He has toured extensively, building a wide fan base outside New Orleans. He is a regular performer at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Critics love him. Alex McMurray gives good interviews. He has a website. www.alexmcmurray.com/

Musicians in New Orleans don’t necessarily make a lot of money, but they get to play a lot, if they’re good. I believe someone somewhere in the music business could profit by helping Alex McMurray build a career at an economic level closer to the musicians he most closely resembles: Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Elvis Costello.

-- Gary Hill
(The author of this document has worked as a journalist for a major international news organization for more than 30 years. His interviews with musicians including Bob Dylan, Sting, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Fela, Lou Reed and others have been picked up by newspapers, websites and pirate fanzines all around the world.)