Musician: Charles Murray
Charles Murray–a life in song
Charles Murray was raised in a home that was alive with the sounds of big band jazz, the Broadway show tunes of the American musical theater and the emerging rock and R&B sounds of the 1960's. His aunts and uncles, all recent immigrants from Ireland, England and the Caribbean performed in a family vaudeville act on the same stage with Charlie Chaplin and inspired him from an early age to dream about a life in music. A Scottish uncle who settled near Toronto, William Murray, was widely known as the Bard of Athol Bank and carried with him to the new country memories of the Grampian Hills and the verses of Robert Burns.
Growing up in the hills of southwestern Ohio, Charles was exposed to the rollicking Appalachian music of the Midwestern Hayride and Doc Watson. The Murray family table was a debating society where the issues of the day were vigorously prosecuted over dinner; the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, the environment, equal rights for women, psychedelic drugs, etc. From this melting pot of music and ideas it should be no surprise that Murray’s fascination with poetry, music and the issues of the day are all expressed in the songs he writes.
Charles came to study and learn from a Ukrainian classical guitar prodigy, Edgar Gural; the great jazz educator, Dale Bruning; the Hollywood film composer, Ronald Stein, and many other mentors who helped him master his craft. Murray’s life experience, personal and social, is the stuff of his songs.