Biography
Jimmy Murphy stands among the more mysterious personalities to emerge from the country and rockabilly circles of the early-to-mid 1950s. A master guitarist and an inventive, perceptive tunesmith, he possessed an instinct for crafting and delivering offbeat, sharp-witted numbers that explored offbeat thematic perspectives. His debut composition, “Electricity,” drew a direct line between rural power lines and spiritual redemption, whereas the nearest he came to an actual chart success, “Sixteen Tons Rock n’ Roll,” poked fun at Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 1956 reading of the Merle Travis classic. Both the structure and subject matter of his work carried an oddly old-fashioned cast that may have curtailed any prospect of sustained commercial traction.
A broad range of sources fed Murphy’s sound, chief among them the blues. His father held deep admiration for several blues performers, among them Blind Boy Fuller and Leadbelly. The younger Murphy entered the same bricklaying trade and maintained a lifelong balance between construction work and music. By the middle of the 1940s he appeared now and then on Birmingham’s WBRC program the Happy Hal Burns Show. Late in 1949 he relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, passed an audition for future Hee Haw regular Archie Campbell’s Dinner Bell Show on WROL, and subsequently moved to WNOX. Campbell arranged an introduction to guitarist Chet Atkins, who set up a demo session; the results secured a publishing deal and an official RCA Victor date in January 1951, at which Anita Carter supplied bass accompaniment.
The single “Electricity” drew warm praise from everyone in the studio, yet it sank without trace, as did its flip side, the cautionary story of a wayward teenage girl titled “Mother Where Is Your Daughter Tonight.” Both tracks harked back stylistically and thematically almost to the 1930s and underscored the wide-ranging character of Murphy’s repertoire. No further RCA couplings fared any better, including the more fully electrified “Big Mama Blues” and “Ramblin’ Heart,” and the label let him go after twelve months.
Murphy remained a steady radio presence in Knoxville, transferring from WROL to WNOX in the mid-1950s. Late in 1955 he attempted another recording career, signing with Columbia Records under producer Don Law. He still lacked the ideal vehicle, even though several energetic rockabilly-flavored numbers such as “Sweet Sweet Lips” may have been conceived partly as commentary on the prevailing style, and nothing from the November 1955 Columbia session reached the charts. The lean, almost minimalist texture of his arrangements may have limited their reach at a moment when amplification and heavier rhythm sections were becoming standard; despite occasional nods to current hits and popular culture, Murphy’s music retained an antique quality better suited to 1940 or 1945 than to 1955.
He attempted to address that mismatch at a second session in May 1956 by cutting “Sixteen Tons Rock n’ Roll,” a track that everyone involved believed would finally break through. It did not chart, and the remaining titles from the date fared no better. Columbia released him at the end of 1956. He continued performing locally between bricklaying jobs and returned to the studio in 1962 for the Cincinnati-based Ark label, where he delivered what may have been his finest single composition, “I Long to Hear Hank Sing the Blues.” Additional sessions followed for Midnite in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as King/Starday, Loyal, and Rimrock, yet none produced lasting results. Murphy gradually faded from wider view, surviving chiefly in the recollections of Knoxville listeners and rockabilly collectors until a sequence of events in the mid-1970s revived interest.
The appearance of “Electricity” on a Library of Congress folk anthology during the 1970s gave the song greater circulation than it had enjoyed in 1951 and prompted researcher Richard Spottswood to locate Murphy. In 1978 the Sugar Hill label, already active in reviving bluegrass careers such as that of former rocker Chris Hillman, issued a new album also titled Electricity featuring a pre-stardom Ricky Skaggs. The record achieved both artistic and commercial success, and further projects plus touring plans were under way when Murphy died in 1981.
A genuine original whose style blended blues and country threads spanning three decades into a topical yet temporally displaced form, Murphy never located the key to widespread sales, although his discs remained sought-after and expensive among rockabilly enthusiasts throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Responding to that enduring demand, Bear Family Records in 1989 released the compilation Sixteen Tons of Rock & Roll, uniting his complete RCA and Columbia masters on a single disc.
A broad range of sources fed Murphy’s sound, chief among them the blues. His father held deep admiration for several blues performers, among them Blind Boy Fuller and Leadbelly. The younger Murphy entered the same bricklaying trade and maintained a lifelong balance between construction work and music. By the middle of the 1940s he appeared now and then on Birmingham’s WBRC program the Happy Hal Burns Show. Late in 1949 he relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, passed an audition for future Hee Haw regular Archie Campbell’s Dinner Bell Show on WROL, and subsequently moved to WNOX. Campbell arranged an introduction to guitarist Chet Atkins, who set up a demo session; the results secured a publishing deal and an official RCA Victor date in January 1951, at which Anita Carter supplied bass accompaniment.
The single “Electricity” drew warm praise from everyone in the studio, yet it sank without trace, as did its flip side, the cautionary story of a wayward teenage girl titled “Mother Where Is Your Daughter Tonight.” Both tracks harked back stylistically and thematically almost to the 1930s and underscored the wide-ranging character of Murphy’s repertoire. No further RCA couplings fared any better, including the more fully electrified “Big Mama Blues” and “Ramblin’ Heart,” and the label let him go after twelve months.
Murphy remained a steady radio presence in Knoxville, transferring from WROL to WNOX in the mid-1950s. Late in 1955 he attempted another recording career, signing with Columbia Records under producer Don Law. He still lacked the ideal vehicle, even though several energetic rockabilly-flavored numbers such as “Sweet Sweet Lips” may have been conceived partly as commentary on the prevailing style, and nothing from the November 1955 Columbia session reached the charts. The lean, almost minimalist texture of his arrangements may have limited their reach at a moment when amplification and heavier rhythm sections were becoming standard; despite occasional nods to current hits and popular culture, Murphy’s music retained an antique quality better suited to 1940 or 1945 than to 1955.
He attempted to address that mismatch at a second session in May 1956 by cutting “Sixteen Tons Rock n’ Roll,” a track that everyone involved believed would finally break through. It did not chart, and the remaining titles from the date fared no better. Columbia released him at the end of 1956. He continued performing locally between bricklaying jobs and returned to the studio in 1962 for the Cincinnati-based Ark label, where he delivered what may have been his finest single composition, “I Long to Hear Hank Sing the Blues.” Additional sessions followed for Midnite in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as King/Starday, Loyal, and Rimrock, yet none produced lasting results. Murphy gradually faded from wider view, surviving chiefly in the recollections of Knoxville listeners and rockabilly collectors until a sequence of events in the mid-1970s revived interest.
The appearance of “Electricity” on a Library of Congress folk anthology during the 1970s gave the song greater circulation than it had enjoyed in 1951 and prompted researcher Richard Spottswood to locate Murphy. In 1978 the Sugar Hill label, already active in reviving bluegrass careers such as that of former rocker Chris Hillman, issued a new album also titled Electricity featuring a pre-stardom Ricky Skaggs. The record achieved both artistic and commercial success, and further projects plus touring plans were under way when Murphy died in 1981.
A genuine original whose style blended blues and country threads spanning three decades into a topical yet temporally displaced form, Murphy never located the key to widespread sales, although his discs remained sought-after and expensive among rockabilly enthusiasts throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Responding to that enduring demand, Bear Family Records in 1989 released the compilation Sixteen Tons of Rock & Roll, uniting his complete RCA and Columbia masters on a single disc.
Albums
Singles
