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The Graceless Age

John Murry Audio CD
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Biography

The way to beat fundamentalism is to find yourself interred at a fundamentalist drug rehabilitation facility for eighteen months as a teenager. “I was only on pills for half as long,” says John Murry about the pharmaceutical speed he was given as a “slow” student at his Mississippi high school. “They gave me the pills and then they locked me up when I took them. I ... Read more in Amazon's John Murry Store

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Product details

  • Audio CD (2 July 2012)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Njm West
  • ASIN: B007ZW33PA
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 53,835 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. The Ballad Of The Pajama Kid
2. California
3. Little Colored Balloons
4. Photograph
5. Things We Lost In The Fire
6. ¿No te da ganas de reir
7. Sènor Malverde?
8. Southern Sky
9. If I'm To Blame
10. Penny Nails
11. Thorn Tree In The Garden

Product Description

Product Description

A survivor’s tale of savage misadventure recounted by an uncompromising, compelling southern voice surfacing from a melange of layered guitars, strings, voices, and electronics. John Murry began recording The Graceless Age (co-produced with Tim Mooney and Kevin Cubbins) four years ago in San Francisco. He took the tapes to Memphis and back again, adding layers of sound as thick as San Francisco fog and Mississippi mud. It’s a big sound at times – back-up singers, panoramic guitar noise, sweet piano melodies, an orchestra of strings, bells, horns… – but no matter how ethereal or expansive, at the heart of each song is something simple maybe written on an acoustic guitar or upright piano about loss and solitude and bad screwing-up, not always with a guilty conscience. Songs written in words “blood red as Mississippi clay”. They may be crafted but they’re soul-wrenchingly emotive, to the point of exploring and revisiting a personal Cavalry Most of the seeming metaphors aren’t metaphors, they’re literal reporting; the fire happened, so did the ambulance rides. Through those layers of sound, the guitars, the electronica, the twisted muzak, you’re held by Murry’s compelling North Mississippi voice, and you also hear the echoes of his near-kinsman William Faulkner, and the lessons he learned at Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint, Jim Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch, in the clubs and bars of Memphis. That he took to the city by the bay, down to The Mission where he died, was resurrected, and by grace told the tale.

Product Description

CD

Customer Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Darkly brilliant. 19 Aug 2012
Format:Audio CD
Every now and then an album comes along that blows me away, it doesn't happen all that often anymore but it does still happen and `The Graceless Age' falls firmly into that category. I didn't really know much about John Murry before getting this record but I now feel I know him intimately and through this amazing album I can feel his pain, in the words of Bob Dylan there is definitely blood on the tracks along with sweat, tears and a whole host of other emotions. Right from the opener `The Ballad of the Pajama Kid' with its Pearl Jam meets `Knocking on Heaven's Door' mash up you can just tell this is going to be a special record and there is no better example of his self-confessional approach as the ten minute `Little Colored Balloons' the sparse piano, cello and minimal gospel hues underpin the true story of Murry's heroin overdose, he was dead for several minutes before being revived. It has shades of Jason Spaceman's confessionals on `Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space' but whereas he went grand with big sounds and production Murry is content with a stripped bare approach letting the sordid tale and his cracked and bruised vocal speak for itself. The innocent title refers to the way the drug was dispensed in his home town in coloured balloons. Guitars, strings and Hammond organ are often layered throughout punctuated by sounds clipped from police broadcasts, radio shows and television, distant voices are present but lost in the compositions perhaps reflecting how Murry felt in the world at the time when he was in the throes of his addictions. Lyrically it is deep and dark but musically it can sound like R.E.M., Jim White, Sparklehorse and in its more atmospheric sections not too dissimilar to Smog. In fact across the ten songs there probably won't be anything that will leap out as sounding all that new but it's in the familiarity, warmth and clever construction that Murry can truly open up and take the listener on a journey into the darkest places a human can go and still survive. Like John Grant's reinvention and subsequent rise on 2010 `Queen of Denmark' it is my hope that enough people find this album and make sure it hits the end of year lists as high as it deserves. Four years in the making this is a remarkable record that has real heart just note that the heart in question is pretty black.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Album of the year so far 31 Aug 2012
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm not a regular reviewer but I just strongly feel this superb record deserves the widest possible audience. I only picked up on it via a track on a free Cd with Uncut magazine who also gave it a rave. John Murry has clearly had a tough life, but out of his suffering has come this cathartic masterpiece which was four years in the making. The style isn't innovative; it's got a little bit of a country feel but is above all Americana rock which is dripping with anger and hurt. Most importantly the songs are genius. It reminds me of John Grant, or even of some of Springsteen's solo stuff but is even better. Album of the year so far without a doubt.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Something special 19 Sep 2012
Format:Audio CD
I too discovered this album via a free track on an Uncut CD, and haven't stopped listening to it since. It's one of the best Lps I've heard this year - dark, brooding American country-folk topped off by Mr Murry's battle-worn voice. A thing of beauty.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Graceless Age: the most emotional album you're likely to hear in 2013
I heard Little Colored Balloons on the radio one night and it was love at first hearing, a rare event for me. I bought the album minutes later. Read more
Published 8 hours ago by Clare_Ireland
5.0 out of 5 stars Bit early for 'Album of the Year', but...
Once again I heard one of the tracks on Uncut magazines' CD and liked it, listened to some others, and decided to buy the deluxe package. Read more
Published 11 days ago by D. S. Pine
5.0 out of 5 stars a strong, stark brilliance.
This is a wonderfully crafted album. Sort of what would happen if you put Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Smith in a blender with a copy of Buffalo 66. Highly recommended.
Published 1 month ago by Danielle Defeo
5.0 out of 5 stars Album of 2012
This album is just about perfect in every respect - buy it it's just sublime! If a better album was released in 2012 I've yet to hear it.
Published 1 month ago by Chris McCarroll
4.0 out of 5 stars Cool tunes
Saw this guy live in the Black Box in Belfast just after Christmas and bought CD after. Very cool tunes from very cool artist.
Published 2 months ago by DC
5.0 out of 5 stars Sarah
First heard John Murry at Celtic Connections and he put so much feeling into his songs I bought his CD and it doesn't disappoint. My favourite track is Southern Sky.
Published 2 months ago by Sarah Marshall
5.0 out of 5 stars addictive
John Murry has a sound very much like Tom Waites and I love it A* he freally feels his music
Published 3 months ago by MR DEAN P HULME
5.0 out of 5 stars John Murry - Grace and Danger
Having waited for Santa to deliver this album down a dirty chimney leads to the conclusion that it would be nice if in the future St Nick made some interim visits mid year. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Red on Black
5.0 out of 5 stars Ace!
Fantastic - and absolutely wonderful burnt, dusty trek through dark and joyous americana

Buy it now and discover a world of musical treats

Simon
Published 6 months ago by Simon Hamlyn
5.0 out of 5 stars raw.........
This is a must have, if you like your music with the nerve ends exposed.John exorcises his old demons with an honesty and vulnerability seldom heard in the sanitised,anodyne... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. J. C. Murray
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