Search - Elliott Murphy :: Never Say Never: The Best of 1995-2005

A new gem from a true American songwriter

benny profane | Canary Islands | 05/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tight band, tasteful guitar work, poignant harmonica-playing, and the voice as full of character as ever, after all these years . . . . Elliott Murphy knows how to tell a story; his songs transcend their focus on the particular and the specific, and leave the listener, wherever he or she may be, reflecting on love and life and the bittersweet joys and sorrows that grace this fine collection of compositions. The US has a long history of neglecting its truest artists; Elliott Murphy left his native Long Island a long time back, to find a home and a grateful, loving audience in France and the rest of Europe. But his use of words, along with the depth of spirit that infuses his lyrics, is in the tradition of Walt Whitman, another Long Islander who shied away from nothing in his songs, and saw a piece of himself in everything he touched or glanced upon. I'm reminded of a letter Emerson once wrote to Whitman, which said, in part, "I give you joy of your free brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, and which large perception only can inspire." Congratulations, Elliott. This cd includes a heartfelt duet that finds Elliott Murphy trading verses with Bruce Springsteen, but buy the cd for "Ground Zero," a truly beautiful song that just may bring a tear to your eye on the first listen--a song that will touch the heart of Manhattan, and all the rest who were watching their televisions on that fateful day that ushered in this strange new world so many of us have been sleepwalking through ever since."