Jim Murphy from Keene, NH


Jim started playing guitar at age 12, inspired by his older brother, also a guitarist. With friends from his Long Island high school, he formed a rock band called the Rogues that had a steady gig at The Mod, a local club where such groups as the Young Rascals and Billy Joel and his band played before he became famous. Jim moved to New Hampshire to study art and became an accomplished landscape painter. Years later, his son Jeff revived his interest in playing out when the younger Murphy took up the bass at age 12. Jim and son started going to the legendary Rynborn blues club in Antrim and began performing together when Jeff was still in his teens. They performed for years, in New England area, as a acoustic blues duo.  Eventually they recruited other musicians on drums, keyboards and saxophone. With a few changes in the line-up, that band eventually became Murphy's Blues. They had a steady gig every month at Rynborn after it moved to Keene until the club shut down in 2006. In 2008, Murphy's Blues became the house band at the EF Lane Hotel in Keene and performs there monthly. Jim also started a blues jam on Thursday nights and books the talent for weekend shows. Jeff recently left the band to form the indie-Americana band Lonesome Lake, but Jim and Murphy's Blues rock on, and Jim's brother still plays country blues up and down the coast of Maine.                  

 A 2004 article about  Jim and Jeff Murphy