Performing Songwriter Magazine

December 1999/January 2000 Issue

“DIY TOP 12”

In his liner notes, Dave Murphy writes, “Most if not all of these songs speak of personal struggle. Thankfully we’re all given the opportunity to change.” He makes that point much more eloquently in his lyrics: “Something is lost and something is gained/Smile through the sorrow and dance in the rain.”

If struggle is the main theme of the bulk of Murphy’s songs, he manages to convey it with an easy-to-swallow, folk rock approach. He’s also been around long enough to know that the answer to the struggles usually lie within. “I thought that you would save me/But I know I need to save myself” he sings in “Save Me.” More hard- earned wisdom informs “The Bottom” as he tells a friend, “even at the bottom there’s still a little light.” “Planet of Pain” alludes to the fact that most personal struggles are actually universal.

Murphy sings in a gentle, unaffected baritone that suits his musings perfectly. He knows what he knows and he’s working on the rest. For the like-minded, Under the Lights will be illuminating, indeed.

By Neil Fagan