Draft:Alex McMurray

McMurray grew up in Red Bank, New Jersey. Neither of his parents were musical — he has described his mother as "famously tone-deaf" — and she died when he was a teenager.^[8] He began playing guitar in his early teens in the 1980s after purchasing an instrument from his cousin for $30, and played in various bands while still in high school.^[9]

McMurray was accepted to Tulane University in New Orleans and enrolled in 1987, initially intending to study physics.^[10][11] He continued playing music while at college, forming a band that included pianist Glenn Hartman.^[12] His musical education broadened to include funk and dance bands, and he worked as a substitute guitarist for groups performing in the bars of Bourbon Street.^[13]

As his songwriting developed, McMurray moved away from dance music toward what he describes as "songs that you would sit down to." He has been performing professionally in New Orleans since 1989.^[14] The city's street culture, bars, and post-Katrina life became central subjects of his work. He has been described by WWOZ New Orleans as "a well-known local songwriter and performer."^[15]

McMurray formed the band Royal Fingerbowl in 1995.^[16] The group recorded two albums, beginning with Happy Birthday Sabo in 1997.^[17] Royal Fingerbowl toured nationally, opening for acts including Ween, Los Lobos, and The Squirrel Nut Zippers.^[18] McMurray later described the Royal Fingerbowl period as the apprenticeship in which he "honed his skills in front of some of the toughest crowds imaginable, winning audiences over with witty, hard-boiled banter and soul-baring performances."^[19]

After Royal Fingerbowl folded, McMurray pursued a solo career while continuing to collaborate widely. In 2002 he spent six months performing sea shanties as "Cap'n Sandy" at Tokyo DisneySea, a period he has described as "the loneliest time of my life."^[20] On returning to New Orleans he formed the Valparaiso Men's Chorus, a vehicle for ribald sea shanties, and began a long-running weekly solo residency — first at the Circle Bar from 1999, and later at the Saturn Bar.^[21]

His debut solo album, Banjaxed, was released in 2003.^[22] How to Be a Cannonball followed in 2009 and won the Big Easy Award for Album of the Year in 2010.^[23] In 2020 McMurray released two albums of original material — Lucky One and Road Songs — earning the OffBeat Magazine Best Country/Folk/Singer-Songwriter Artist and Album of the Year awards.^[24] His most recent studio album, The Recent Future, was released in 2022.^[25]

McMurray has been a prolific collaborator throughout his career. His long-running groups include The Tin Men — a sousaphone, washboard, and guitar trio co-founded with Matt Perrine and Will Blanchard^[26] — the Valparaiso Men's Chorus, 007 (a rock-steady band drawn from members of G. Love and Special Sauce, The Iguanas, and the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars), The Write Brothers (with Jim McCormick, Paul Sanchez, and Spencer Bohren), and The Happy Talk Band (with Luke Spurr Allen).^[27] He also partnered with guitarist Jonathan Freilich as The Tom Paines, performing obscure folk songs, blues, and murder ballads.^[28]

As a sideman he has worked with Susan Cowsill, Paul Sanchez, Spencer Bohren, "Papa" John Gros, Lynn Drury, Ani DiFranco, and others.^[29] His songs have been recorded and performed by The Iguanas, Susan Cowsill, and Paul Sanchez, among others.^[30] He has performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival every year since 1996, both as a leader and sideman.^[31]

McMurray appeared as himself in multiple episodes of Tremé, the HBO drama series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer, which ran from 2010 to 2013 and depicted the recovery of New Orleans musicians following Hurricane Katrina.^[32] His band the Valparaiso Men's Chorus also contributed music to the series, providing an arrangement of Huey Long's theme song "Every Man a King" for the show's final season.^[33] McMurray's song "The Day After Mardi Gras Day" was featured in the closing credits of a Tremé episode.^[34]

OffBeat Magazine, the leading publication covering Louisiana music, has featured McMurray in multiple profile articles. A 2022 feature called him "the quintessential New Orleans singer-songwriter" and noted that he is "rightfully recognized as a great guitarist and singer-songwriter" and "a tremendous navigator of the New Orleans music scene."^[35] Reviewing his 2020 album Road Songs, the late music critic John Swenson wrote in OffBeat that McMurray "weaves myths that touch our collective soul."^[36] NOLA.com has described his work as "keen, poetic and often blackly funny."^[37] NOLA Music describes him as "one of the wittiest, most original voices in the New Orleans singer-songwriter scene."^[38] WWNO New Orleans Public Radio has described him as a songwriter with "more original characters in his head than a Hollywood film library."^[39]

McMurray's songwriting draws on the specific textures of downtown New Orleans — its bars, neighborhoods, and post-Katrina landscape — filtered through a sensibility he once described by invoking Blanche DuBois: "I find sorrow to be quite a beautiful emotion. Loneliness can be nice."^[40]

McMurray is married to graphic artist and photographer Kourtney Keller.^[41]