Eleanor Murray

Well, it’s been a little while now, hasn’t it? I’ve been taking a little break from some things, including performing and updating this website (eek!). I apologize for being out of touch. But in the meantime, I’ve been working hard at writing new material for the next album.  It’s coming along great! In the near future, I plan on testing out some of these songs at shows here and there. And speaking of shows, there’s one coming up next Tuesday, December 6th at the Alamingo House (1705 Prospect Ave) with Letters, Luna Moth, and Blue Valley Farmer. Should be a good ‘ol time.

Other news, the store on the website has been updated with lots of new goodies. You can now purchase my new LP, Thunderling. Also, I now have stickers and posters for sale. Take a look!

Thanks for stopping by.

love,
eleanor

We’re home from tour! And we’re alive, happy, exhausted, and still ready to rock n’ drive. Our final tally for our Thunderling National Tour this summer is 51 shows in just 58 days. We passed through more than half of the fifty states, totaling 34 states in all. The tour involved six incredible musicians in various combinations: Peter Keller played drums for us on the west coast, Pat Maley drummed on the east coast, my brother Patrick Murray fluted from Georgia to Massachusetts, Pamela Margon shredded on violin from Tennessee to Washington, Abigail Peachtree sang back-up and dazzled the country with her songs through the deserts of the Southwest into Georgia, and Joshua James wailed on the bass for the entire haul. Though it was hard work and stressful at times, I could not have asked for a better result. I’m thrilled to have met so many kind and generous people and talented musicians, to have visited family and old friends, and I honestly don’t know how I’ll be able to sit still until the next tour. I guess that’s what songwriting and recording is for.

Below is a gallery of some pictures we snapped along the way and recordings of some of our performances. I’ve discovered I tend to be camera-inept, so thank you Patrick Murray and Pat Maley for capturing so much, in addition to Joseph Traina, Ben Henderson, Tyler Reinhard, and Ashley Heeney for their beautiful camera-work. Below each picture is a description and arrows on the bottom-right to the see the next picture.

pictures from tour

[Show as slideshow]

videos and recordings from tour

Electric Sky performed live on KHUM in Ferndale, CA.

Come Alive performed live on KHUM in Ferndale, CA.

Cathedral recorded live at The Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, OH by Ashley Heeney.

Here The Whale, Scream, and Little Warrior are recorded live in-studio on the No Love For Ned online radio show in Chapel Hill, NC. To find the recordings, check out “Murray, Eleanor” in the in-studio sessions and it’s about one hour into the radio show.

We are 29 shows, 17 states, and 4 radio shows into our tour…and we’re only halfway done! In these first few weeks we have…

run out of gas and had a flat tire in the middle of the desert, had a dancer come out in a whale costume for “The Whale” and do a 7 minute dance performance, had 10 days of 100 degree plus heat, spent a couple days driving through the 500,000 acre fire in Arizona, had Woody Harrelson in the audience at one of our shows, got food poisoning, got checked for retinal hemorrhaging, played an NPR affiliate, stayed in giant tent/yurt-like things in desolate southwest Texas, played a pop country showcase in Nashville, been surprised by time zones more than once, opened for an 8 piece Chicago-style soul band, drove through amazing thunder and wind storms, been pulled over at a border patrol checkpoint, stayed with a man whose apartment was decorated completely in tribute to Janis Joplin, got poison ivy, learned to be the backing band for a singer-songwriter 10 minutes before we did a live radio show with him in the Knoxville Visitor Center, got horribly lost/stuck in traffic and arrived 3 hours late to a show, had a retreat in the mountains of Georgia, got sunburned, drove away with bags on top of car a couple times, lost glasses and cell phones and had them mailed to us, snuck into an apartment complex’s hot tub in the middle of the night, among other things.

In short: we’ve had a ton of amazing shows and been put up by some of the most hospitable people the world has ever known. Our gratitude to the hosts, bookers, promoters, and bands is immense. We would be a sad shell of our current selves if it were not for them. We are truly blessed.

Here are some updated dates for our current tour! It’s bound to change still so keep checking our performances page for updates to come.

6/2 Seattle WA, 6/3 Olympia WA, 6/4 Portland OR, 6/5 Ashland OR, 6/6 Arcata CA, 6/7 San Francisco CA, 6/8 Oakland CA, 6/9 Davis CA, 6/10 Santa Barbara CA, 6/11 Phoenix AR, 6/12 Tucson AR, 6/13 Albuquerque NM, 6/14 Santa Fe NM, 6/15 Marfa TX, 6/16 Austin TX, 6/17 Fort Worth TX, 6/19 Little Rock AR, 6/23 Nashville TN, 6/24 Chapel Hill NC, 6/26 Charlottesville VA, 6/27 York PA, 6/28 Baltimore MD, 6/29 Harrisburg PA, 6/30 Brooklyn NY, 7/1 Shelter Island NY, 7/2 Brooklyn NY, 7/3 Boston MA, 7/4 Boston MA, 7/5 Ithaca NY, 7/6 Jamestown NY, 7/7 Cleveland OH, 7/8 Louisville KY, 7/9 Bloomington IN, 7/10 Champaign Urbana IL, 7/11 St Louis MO, 7/14 Chicago IL, 7/15 Chicago IL, 7/16 Winona MN, 7/17 Minneapolis MN, 7/18 Des Moines IA, 7/19 Lawrence KS, 7/20 Oklahoma City OK, 7/22 Denver CO, 7/23 Salt Lake City UT, 7/24 Jackson WY, 7/26 Boise ID, 7/28 Portland OR, 7/30 Olympia WA

We’re hitting the road this June and July with our brand new vinyl, “Thunderling” (Talking Helps Records)! Also the brilliantly talented Abigail Peachtree is joining part of our crazy adventure and delighting us with her sweet, sweet songs.

We’re going around the whole country! Watch out! Here’s what we got lined up and also what we’re hoping for. (Note: not all these dates are confirmed and the cities may inevitably change. The real deal is on our performances page. Be sure to check back there for updates.)

6/2 Seattle WA, 6/3 Olympia WA, 6/4 Portland OR, 6/5 Ashland OR, 6/6 Arcata CA, 6/7 San Francisco CA, 6/8 ??, 6/9 Davis CA, 6/10 Santa Barbara CA, 6/11 Phoenix AR, 6/12 Flagstaff AR, 6/13 Albuquerque NM, 6/14 Santa Fe NM, 6/15 Marfa TX, 6/16 Austin TX, 6/17 Dallas TX, 6/18 Denton TX, 6/19 Little Rock AR, 6/23 Nashville TN, 6/24 Chapel Hill NC, 6/26 Charlottesville VA, 6/27 York PA, 6/28 Philadelphia PA, 6/29 Harrisburg PA, 6/30 Brooklyn NY, 7/1 Shelter Island NY, 7/2 Brooklyn NY, 7/3 Boston MA, 7/5 Ithaca NY, 7/6 Cleveland OH, 7/7 Pittsburgh PA, 7/8 Bloomington IN, 7/9 Louisville KY, 7/10 Champaign Urbana IL, 7/13 Chicago IL, 7/14 Lake Forest IL, 7/15 Madison WI, 7/16 Minneapolis MN, 7/18 St Louis IL, 7/19 Lawrence KS, 7/20 Oklahoma City OK, 7/22 Denver CO, 7/23 Boulder CO, 7/24 Salt Lake City UT, 7/25 Boise ID, 7/26 Portland OR, 7/27 Olympia WA

phew!
see you’s soon,
eleanor

The mini-east-coast-tour is sadly over but a total success! So many wonderful shows and people, thank you everyone who helped make it happen. Let’s see, some highlights for you…we ran out of gas on our way to Boston from Bard College in a small farm town with no cell phone service and the nearest gas station 6 miles away. Thank goodness for triple A. Though they only gave us enough gas for 5 miles…we made it though! With beaming colors. Also, Harrisburg PA is my new favorite stop, I swear the those people are made of sugar! The tour concluded with a thunderous-lightening-pouring rain-flood warnings show in Brooklyn at my brother’s pad. He put up a sign on his door that night and by the morning, there was only a blank sheet of paper, all the ink had washed off! Not even a stain left! We ended up having an intimate show that evening and there’s some sweet videos of my bro playing flute and singing with me.

Though I am a little sad to be back, there’s no time like the present to start making the next tour happen! This June and July, me and my fabulous “co” (the band) are taking on the whole country. We’re making a counter-clockwise loop around the gigantic US of A and like always, would love to see you along the way and would greatly appreciate any help/recommendations with shows.

Check out this live recording of “The Whale” at Moviate, Harrisburg PA !

love!
eleanor

Hey all you lovelies…I’m heading to New York next week for a mini-tour, solo-style. I would love to see your beautiful faces and/or the beautiful faces of your friends! Check out the dates and info and be sure to check back for updates. If you wanna help out with a show, you would become my instant hero. And that’s a big deal in my book. You can write me at eleanor.c.murray(at)gmail(dot)com.

I hope to see you soon!

love,
eleanor

No joke! We’ve been working on a new vinyl this winter and it’s getting ready to see the world. This vinyl is a live version of our previous 2010 album, “Oh Thunder” with a few new treats and twists. We just had so much fun the first time around, we had to dive in again for some more. It will be released this June on Talking Helps Records in time for our two-month national tour.

On a different note, just want to give a big, sincere apology to anyone that came to the SPAR this weekend to see my show. I am embarrassed and ashamed to admit, in the midst of feeling sick with an oncoming cold and convinced the show was next weekend, I failed to show up! I make it a point to treat music and performances with my highest amount of respect and it pains me to find out I made such a mistake. I wrote the date wrong in my calendar and yet, somehow, I see I had the date right on this website! Man oh man, I have to admit, my mind’s been falling apart a little from tour planning, and so has my body, and I will be sure never to make this mistake again! Next show, whatever you want to hear, even if I don’t know the song, you got it. Or I’ll bring some candy…

love,
eleanor

I can’t write about winter enough. I don’t think I could hold back even if I tried. It’s such a complex season, with so many faces and things to say. That’s not saying that I enjoy it, however. I think I enjoy winter after it leaves and it’s only then can I appreciate what it brought me and see clearly what happened during our insane affair.

For me, it’s a time of projects, writing, and introspection, which are three of my favorite things. But just as the natural world behaves differently for each season, so does creativity. And I think this is where I butt heads with winter. I want to create and release and move these things around in the world. I am so eager for motion. But winter’s movement is slow and sleepy, or sporadic in fitful storms. But maybe if I accept that these creations are seeds in the ground, waiting for spring, winter and I might be able to get along, or at least communicate a little better. And you know what they say, talking helps.