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www.billysbunker.com
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Sincerely, Iris
"Headlight Sonata"
An Intimate, Intricate, Infinite, Sweet "Folk You!"
"'One ...Sincerely, Iris
"Headlight Sonata"
An Intimate, Intricate, Infinite, Sweet "Folk You!"
"'One guitar, car in cruise, and brand new wounds to mend,' sums up the whole experience of Headlight Sonata. This is an album dedicated to traveling and moving on. From the slow death of an old relationship, to the fear of falling in love too quickly, to finding comfort in your own mortality, these are songs that you need when all that you have are the white lines and bright lights leading your way."
~ Todd Murray of Sincerely, Iris
The first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony open the first song and the album as a nod and a wink to the grand scale on this deliberately small album. I may be reading into this but that nod reminds me of the old wise phrase about the size of things: "What is more important, and elephant or a baby?" I've been listening to this album and enjoying my own feelings through the listening, though I haven't been sure what to say about these songs. I took a walk.
"I'm just happy that the music has you thinking. Makes me pretty excited. The album title is sort of a play on words with Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata.' Which is pretty much all piano. I used to practice it all the time when I was taking classical guitar lessons."
~ Todd Murray in response to my email calling his album a "journey of self-discovery."
Through a little stretch of Parker Woods on the way to the UDF and Sidewinder, I had Todd's Sincerely, Iris on my mind. Those woods are a delightful half block of nature to travel through and it's all downhill walking on the grass. Todd's songs in my memory seemed to fit as something natural and beautiful with life and death and everything in between all through the journey. I've lived here a year and I've just started opening my eyes to things like that. I've been missing things. Todd's little record doesn't seem to miss much. He seems to notice all the stops on the road in his "Headlight Sonata." Seems to me I've felt that before. A new discovery: That Book Monster box in front of the Sidewinder is filled with freebies, and I have lost all my books. I picked it over and wound up with some real gems: "The Dharma Bums," "Big Sur," and "Mexico City Blues" by Jack Keroac, "The Inferno" by Dante Alleghieri, and William S. Burrough's 50th Anniversary Definitive edition of "Junky" became my treasure of the day. Who knew? I think my insight into this album was planted by the Book Monster in that box. Todd's little album with a grand scope Kerouac's "On The Road," William Burrough's best advice "For God's sake keep your eyes open," and a mining of the details of a life for the details that resonate with the big ideas of ancient Greek and that cosmic bitterness of no less than Dante' Divine Comedy.
"I was trying to figure out what the hell to call the album, so I asked my cousin if he had any ideas. He mentioned that he thought my songs would fit really well as the soundtrack to a roadtrip movie. The wheels started turning from there."
~ Todd Murray
Todd's voice hooks me like a echo of Luka Bloom, Thomas Kitt, and Al Stewart telling stories about their lives in song. This album has the scope of folk with sweet homemade arrangements that are grand enough to borrow styles from big sound and big production numbers from classic achievements in pop, rock and a the composed elements of big symphonic works. This is a road record with insights gained from the speeding lighthouses in the opposing headlights and courage to go on despite the stoplight red tails on the fins up ahead. This may be a musician's journey from gig to gig emanating from a home base in Chicago, but all such stories along the two-lane blacktop are journeys of discovery whether they were written on a long roll of hand towel or typed out on a screen. This album is not so much arranged to tell an epic novel as to describe the magnum opus of a single man like Kerouac but this time his name is Todd.
". . . and I eventually came up with that title. I hope I can't get sued for stealing a bit from Beethoven. Ah hell, even George Harrison stole every now and then. I'll just say it was an accident.
~ Todd Murray
That album cover by artist and fellow musician Matthew Shelton says it well with its torn paper simplicity like an unaddressed letter damaged by fire revealing the words printed on double lines the way a first grader learns to write: "Headlight Sonata" on the top, and the writer of the note and name of the band "Sincerely, Iris." The Greeks wrote stories of dignity in the face of fate, but this album unfolds in the American mode in a world of choices and memories. "Iris" is a Greek term used commonly to refer to all iris species of flowering plants including the Belacanda (blackberry lily), Herodactylus (snake's head iris), Neomarica (walking iris) and Pardanthopsis. That common name and popular species of plants for the garden come from the Greek name for "[t]he goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods."
"Enjoy that Cincinnati warmth Billy, there are many things that I'm missing here lately about old Ohio."
~ Todd Murray
I've never met Todd Murray but he sure seems like a friend when I listen to this album. How cool is that for him to wish me will out here in the hot days of summer in Northside he once thought of as his home? This album is like a little note from a friend, and it's also a whisper from the goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. As I sit here on a hot day in Cincinnati listening to Headlight Sonata, I think I can hear that ancient goddess whispering the message in all of these songs and Todd's email: "Notice me in everything! For god's sake keep your eyes open!" Todd is invested in the small voice and the big idea. One of his concert posters has the provocative sweet phrase: "Folk you!" He's a good guy and this album invites you to notice the big things in the little details of life. I can use that. I've listened to this album over and over and it takes me to a good place. This album is a beautiful letter from a poet and a friend. It means something more with each reading. I feel good.
THE SONGS
1. Cemetery Blues
Beethoven won't sue Todd for stealing the theme for the Fifth. He don't care. Todd's sings past the cemetery as connected to time and death as part of everything just like that composer Ludwig Van. "Walking train tracks looking for a white light, and all those gray stones look good to me." These lyrics border on poetry which is rare and maybe a little bit Irish in its scope and sound.
2. You Are What I Need
The percussion on this track seems to have been improved from some boxes or furniture, and has that personal quality John Lennon got from set of bed springs on "Instant Karma." Loves songs are a dime a dozen but this sweet and personal ditty breaks through like an unassuming janitor walking past security unnoticed. I take a tip of the hat in the harmony to the masters of the small and personal done right by the Mamas and the Papas. This love song is so intimate it might have been written in Mom's kitchen to a real girl to delight her. Can't beat that. I don't care what you spend on production, you can't beat that! I was touched on the shoulder once at the supermarket by a woman who thought I was her husband. She apologized. My shoulder was tingling with her affection. "You love your husband," I said, "I can feel that from your touch." This song gives me that feeling of being let into something I'm allowed to feel vicariously. "Everybody's got a vice or something to hide. I think that handle mine with you by my side." That's the gift of hanging out with someone you love. Feels like home.
3. Wake Up
Todd's opener moves like a traveling song with a fast paced pop sound and vision. The lyrics are folk poetry. This song reminds me of listening to Al Stewart from a folding chair on a hill next to the Holiday Inn. "See Cinderella's a whore now. She took her shoes and ran right out the back door. There ain't no solice in her broken home, but she can't stay on that thrown. There's something in her spine to leave it all behind. She sees temptation is everywhere. She could care less about the clothes she wears." This song marks the transition of one leaving home. "The stories you're told don't disappear when you're old. You're all grown up. The lullabies have passed you buy. You see everyone grows up. Wake up!" Guess we all leave the husk of a cracked and broken shell when first we hit the road.
4. Takes One to Know
Todd takes to the twelve-string and a waltz-time song so Irish in it's folk content I believe I am hearing Luka Bloom at his best in this song. "Come back to me like the cold takes the leaves where you belong. I pull on your strings lift your head and then your feet and walk you home. If you're alive there's a right and there's a wrong way to go. I've traveled them both. There's pain but there's growth in my bones. It's too late, it's too late, I know. To come back, to come back home." There is a theatre organ sound augmented to sound like a hundred mandolins as I hear them soaring along after the chorus. This song stops with the chorus each time, and resumes with more to be said. "Tonight I can sleep alone. A fool's heart is never as strong as he shows. It takes one to know." Damn! That's some fine folk! The light high notes played as arpeggios mark the passage of time. Todd has learned himself like a scholar knows a book. Gotta love that.
5. Alive
Harmonics start the story of being "Alive." "I'm calling my ghosts out. I'm crawling out and 'Leave me alone!' but they are trying to stay within soaking through a sin but I ain't scared no more. No! Hear me. The real me coming out. I wanta be, I want destroy the silence you weep through. Weep through me. Feel me. Stayin'! Oooooh, alive." The level of intimacy in this song is magical. The heart speaks in broken sentences. The self is all we create that matters. This song is alive.
6. Shakespeare Burning
"Where I'm going I can never say again, but I'm bound by the grace of God and other broken men. Movin' on the highway blues of some of my best friends. One guitar, car in cruise, and brand new wounds to mend. I don't belong so [I] leave you alone." A powerful low slide figure on the deep notes comes up from below. "But I know that the moon she watches me from outer space. Borrowed heart, a borrowed kiss, and a borrowed peace of mind. Borrowed shirt, shared regrets, but I'm taking off with mine. I don't belong so I'm leavin' you. Alone is the part of the nights I sit just waiting for you. Gone is the part of the man who once sought to adore you. Wrong is the part of the man you thought would stay but I took off down the road." The Shakespeare in this song is the part about all the world is a play and men are only players. "We all play the parts we are born to play and we never learn. I played the fool but I've ripped my script and that and Shakespeare burn. Brand new scene but time has come to leave it up to chance. 'Cause when we are broken we cry, and sad we cry, but the time has come to dance." Nothing but an instrumental break could follow that. Todd complies. Wow!
7. Wrong Time Lovers
A little scratching on the acoustic strings starts the engine of this song. "I go and dig my own grave and I always dive right in. And the tears that I cry, you know they make me strong. Wrong! Wrong time lovers are breaking through the covers. Hearts are often broke. Wrong time lovers, it's always discovered by the time you left in smoke. I can't explain why fools try again, and again." Todd drinks a poison metaphorically in this another song of Shakespearian scope. This one is a fast and powerful folk on the border of acoustic rock 'n' roll.
8. Believe in the Moonlight
Enter the ballad! Todd is self-conscious about the moonlight as a theft from Beethoven, but I think that man would give him a hug for this song. "No one knows just why one kiss can decide. We will know. It will be shown tonight. Believe in the moonlight." This song "high on hopes and low on gasoline" may be my favorite today. Sometimes life just seems to hinge on a single kiss.
9. Sparkles and Falls
Bongos or congas takes this song to the street like a busker at rush hour singing his heart out. "Nobody's perfect and that ain't nobody's fault. So when you're climbing the wall your gonna freakout at something beautiful." I don't know if I heard the words just right, but it's close enough to move me. This song is like "Tonight you wait around for something true something that builds a piece of you that just sparkles and falls. Nobody's perfect and that ain't nobody's fault." Sounds like wisdom to me.
10. Diggin
Two notes on the guitar suspend time until the words begin to flow. "One day you stop dreamin'. I'm older now and they don't come around when I'm sleepin'. One day to stop believing. The part of me that wants to is leaving. No lullabies for me." Todd talks about the fast world spinning and spinning with prescription pills for sleeping, while he looks through the past for clues. Todd is diggin' in the past for something lost. This song flows like a river in a dream. "The tragedy is knowing that either way you turn you're gonna fail, fail, break the rails. My world moves so fast and nothin' ever lasts. It reminds me of the time I've got to lose. Diggin' through the past for clues." Do the math! "Divide mistakes in half and add what I've got left. Throw it in the world and turn and run like hell!" Todd has a bit of advice in this cautionary tale: "Don't ever stop dreaming." Advice well taken.
11. Falling for the Night
After falling for the night, Todd sings "I don't need anyone." This is a song where the night falls on you. "Call on your boy. Call on your girl. When the time is right they won't save your world. You're just wastin' time." Todd describes a solitary place on the landscape in all our terrain. Jay Patton's slide guitar is an acoustic gift to this song.
12. I Can Never Know
You can't know everything, and Todd takes to the radio mic for a narration of this state of mind. "I wonder if the angels hover over when she sings so high. Sing into my soul . . . Just give to me that mystery you hold that I can never know." She's now singing to him. "She's singing to a Romeo that never ever seems to appear." Todd has taken Shakespeare and The Greeks on the road to find his soul. That's folk on a mission, on a road trip, and traveling to the moon. "So sing into my soul. 'Cause perfect 's not the goal. Give to me the mystery that I can never know." This album should not be overlooked. It's intricate and intimate. If that's not enough, all I can say is "Folk you!"
All song written by Todd Murray.
All instruments played by Todd except:
Bass and Lead Guitar on Wrong Time Lovers and Slide Guitar on Falling for the Night by Jay Patton.
Recorded at mom's house, my apartment, and Handwritten Recording.
Mixed by Ryan Jordan, Rick Riggs, and J.P. Riggs at Handwritten Recording.
Mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room.
Guitar Effects by PEEBSound
(www.myspace.com/PEEBSoundeffects)
Insert Photo by Jerome Crouse
Disc Artwork by Matthew Shelton
All other artwork by Todd Murray
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On Our Radar: Sincerely, Iris
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On Our Radar: Sincerely, Iris
Posted by Jason Petros on April 23, 2009
Reviews / No Comments
Ac...On Our Radar: Sincerely, Iris
Posted by Jason Petros on April 23, 2009
Reviews / No Comments
Acoustic Singer/Songwriter Todd Murray is special. Not the “I eat paste” special – quite the opposite actually – his is the first local, acoustic music I’ve heard that melds folk and blues stylings successfully. It’s like a fried Twinkie – it really shouldn’t work together, but it does – and it is tasty. This man knows his way around an acoustic guitar, whether playing lead or rhythm he does so tastefully and in full control. Todd knows each songs destiny and puts his best foot forward presenting them on his recently recorded effort, Headlight Sonata. Although some might groan at the thought of some ass clown playing an acoustic guitar around a campfire (again, sigh) – Todd’s music moves, dynamically through different strum patterns, hard and soft exchanges, and some KT Tunstall-like chicka chicka’s to infuse what is normally left for the coffee house set with a new and unique sounding vibe. When you think of blues/folk you have to conjure bits and pieces of rock and roll history; ie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and the Who – these bands knew how to steal successfully. They took music; new to the mainstream audience, and put into words and melodies that we could all understand. It takes a special ear and a yearning for what is inside one’s soul to connect with the blues and it takes a wordsmith with an observant mind to put honesty and articulation on top of these attributes. Now I’m not saying that Toddy Murray is the next Jimmy Page – actually far from it – but what I am saying is that Sincerely, Iris has found a way to create music that bites on these predecessors without sounding whiney or too over the top (see Greg Reed) – or being too steeped in traditional acoustic guitar playing. His album is missing drums – and that can make or break my comparisons really easily – but for what it is, it accomplishes everything the music is going for. He’s not afraid to get a little experimental – check out the bridge on “Diggin” – almost sounds like a guest spot from Andrew Bird. Also be sure to listen to the haunting, minor key song, “Don’t Let the Man Get You Down” – the production value here really surprised me, what sounded like a crappily recorded piano eventually attached to my mind like a Zebra Mussel and in the end had me saying ‘wow, that actually fit really good.’ All in all, with Sincerely, Iris, Todd Murray has tapped into a nice niche, the only question is, can he push it further? Is he strictly an acoustic guitar guy, or is this album simply an introduction to a stronger more powerful artist, backed by a real band and plugged in? I’m hoping for the latter.
www.sincerelyiris.com
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Spanish Horns, Change and Today's New Band - Sincerely, Iris
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Wednesday, 5 November 2008 Spanish Horns, Change and Today's New Band - Sincerely, Iris One of the p...Wednesday, 5 November 2008 Spanish Horns, Change and Today's New Band - Sincerely, Iris One of the problems of constantly searching for new bands to feature on A New Band A Day is that, having heard all the great new stuff out there, all the music on my iPod is left sounding stale and old. I'll frequently spend 10 minutes spooling through all the bands on it, only managing to think of reasons not to listen to them. Why listen to an old Mansun album when you could be playing the new bunch of craziness from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs?
Well, as I reminded myself yesterday when my iPod picked it on shuffle, because it's great, and that's why you bought it in the first place, you sieve-memoried-idiot. Mansun's vaguely stupidly-titled Attack of the Grey Lantern is a wonderfully overblown, pompous rock epic, nestling somewhere between daft camp and deft rock heroics, I rediscovered.
Today's New Band is a bit of a change from the norm. Sincerely, Iris is a folky singer/songwriter who sticks out from the usual ANBAD fare of buzzy guitar crazies and bleepy weirdos like a pork chop in the rabbi's pocket, in the determinedly offensive words of my old Art teacher, Mr Baker.
If I'm being honest, his type of music is the kind that I'd usually skip over. The whole male voice/acoustic guitar thing usually dredges up horrible memories of Damien Rice, which is tantamount to torture, or at least a waterboarding-type 'interrogative technique', in my eyes. Deja Vu, though, is such a rambling, shuffling and urgent song that my preconceptions were rightly swept aside. Also, it's got Spanish Horns on it, for crap's sake. I love Spanish Horns.
Boys, Girls and Fools is the kind of plaintive love song which appeals to the tiny fraction of my heart which isn't black and withered, and maybe this is the lesson for today. Even if you're avowedly against something, there's always an exception that finds a gap and pierces home. However much I wanted one of the songs to suddenly explode into Primal Scream's Accelerator, ultimately, I'm glad it didn't.
So change is as good as a rest. Listen here, and keep listening even if it's not usually your thing. You might surprise yourself. Talking of change, that Irish guy, O'Bama, won too. Good on him.
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The Great Unknown Album Review
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One of the most interesting of Savannah's newest crop of acoustic artists, Sincerely, Iris makes mus...One of the most interesting of Savannah's newest crop of acoustic artists, Sincerely, Iris makes music that gleefully gallops across easy categorization. These songs veer from spacey, modal musing to hyperdrive rock to highly melodic and structured pop, each with a lyrical knife's edge that puts them into that fabulously rich and never specific singer/songwriter territory.
Still, the most primal joy of The Great Unknown is in the fabric of the DIY recording itself - Todd Murray, who is Sincerely, Iris, has overdubbed every instrument, including bass, percussion, keyboards and electric guitar. His acoustic guitar is always in the forefront, using open tunings, octave chords, strange-sounding fingerpicking counterpoints, classical motifs and flourishes of jazz and flamenco.
The juxtaposition, strangely, works, creating an enormously satisfying musical tapestry.
Murray has been compared, frequently, to Jeff Buckley, and you can hear it in the yearning, almost melancholy of his lyrics and the moodiness of his vocals. "She Moves Me" and the exquisite, waltz-time "Dear Clementine" have echoes of early Gordon Lightfoot, and the spectral images of jazz-era Joni, non-twee Sufjan and early Iron & Wine appear from time to time.
The one I keep coming back to is "The Great Unknown," the album's title song. Starting with the nostalgic sound of a film projector, it's a road song - a salute, no doubt, to Murray's days as a Chicago-based traveler and ever-hungry touring performer. This song has a melody that won't leave me alone, and a brilliant guitar figure that evokes an open road, full of endless possibilities.
The past is only a fading ghost. So I give it away to the great unknown.
Along with Dare Dukes, whose second studio recording is due to arrive early in the New Year, Sincerely, Iris is evidence that Savannah, despite its ripe rock ‘n' rollers, eclectic hipster groups and the myriad other talismans of musical fertility, has one hell of an acoustic punch.
(The Great Unknown is available at sincerelyiris.bandcamp.com. Physical CDs, and ITunes availability, are forthcoming.)
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Local musician Sincerely, Iris releases new album of original material
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By Linda Sickler
Sincerely, Iris releases new album
Todd Murray is a traveling man, so it’s...By Linda Sickler
Sincerely, Iris releases new album
Todd Murray is a traveling man, so it’s no wonder he calls his style “road trip music.”
His new album was recorded in two states, Illinois and Georgia.
“I’ve lived in five states in the past 10 years,” Murray said.
“If you count how many times I’ve packed up my stuff and moved to a new apartment or house, it totals up to at least 12 addresses. The highway and I have a special relationship.”
The new album is titled “The Great Unknown” after one of its songs.
“In that song, I’m reminiscing on the past, where I’ve been, and realizing that the best things can happen when you give up and plunge into the great unknown,” Murray said. “Now, that can be about the highway, the future or even God. I guess it’s about just not knowing what the future holds and being perfectly OK with that. That kind of sums up the idea of the whole album.”
After a trip home to Ohio for an album release party, Murray will return to Savannah in time to play Flip Flop Tiki Bar & Grill on Dec. 30.
All the material on the album is original, and Murray wrote the majority of the songs over the past three years.
“One song, ‘Gone Now,’ is actually about six years old,” he said. “I recorded and mixed the album in closets in Georgia and Illinois.”
Not only did he write the material, Murray also played most of the instruments on the album.
“James Lee Smith, a great guitarist from the band Savannah Avenue, played lead guitar on two songs, ‘Your Every Move’ and ‘The Great Unknown,’” Murray said.
“Britt Scott from The Lovely Locks sang backup on two songs, ‘The Great Unknown’ and ‘You’re Not Alone.’ They both did an amazing job. I definitely want to record with more people on the next album.”
Murray tries to make each album sound a little different from the last.
“I’ve always loved artists who’ve changed a bit with every album, like (Bob) Dylan, Miles Davis, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell,” he said. “Not that I’m anywhere near as amazing as those artists.”
But Murray is good enough to do music full-time.
“I teach lessons on the side, which I really enjoy,” he said. “I learn so much from that.”
Response to the album has all been positive.
“One of the songs is going to be used in a documentary called ‘Energy! O Energy!’ in Wyoming,” Murray said.
“I just shot a video for the song ‘Leave It All Behind.’ It was my first real video shoot.”
The video can be seen at youtube.com/sincerelyiris.
“They shot part of it in my apartment,” Murray said. “The crew blocked out the windows and 10 people brought in a trailer full of equipment. It was crazy, and I’m sure the neighbors were very confused.”
Women are an obvious influence, and the song “She Moves Me” is about Bonnie Raitt.
“I have a soft spot for great female blues and jazz singers,” Murray said. “The opening riff of ‘Gone Now’ is highly, highly, influenced by Edith Piaf. The initial idea was to combine the sweetness of a French song with the intensity of the alternative/folk/indie/nonsense that I do.
“‘Your Every Move’ — this song is about — well, Paris Hilton comes to mind. That kind of girl.”
“Dear Clementine” was inspired by a film.
“This song was written about the movie ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’” Murray said.
When he wrote “Waiting Blues,” Murray was inspired by other musicians.
“I’d been listening to a bit of Rodrigo y Gabriela, and I think that sound had an influence on this song,” he said.
“Inspiration is all over. Music is the one thing I really enjoy doing for hours on end. A lot of it for me is just discovery, whether it be a cool sound on guitar or being inspired by something another musician is doing. I think songwriting is just a way for me to make sense of my past in song/story form, and hopefully other people can relate to those stories.
“It’s also a great excuse to use my imagination, to be a kid for a little bit,” Murray said. “I was terrible at painting and drawing in school, terrible, just awful, so I’m happy to be creative in a different field.”
