Event

The Murphy Beds

Eamon OLeary and Jefferson Hamer (aka The Murphy Beds) present traditional and original folk songs with close harmonies and deft instrumental arrangements on bouzouki, guitar, and mandolin. They have toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, with performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), Alaska Folk Festival (Juneau), Doolin Folk Festival (Ireland), and Unamplifire Festival (London) among many others.

Eamon and Jefferson began playing together at traditional music sessions in New York City. They shared an interest in collecting, arranging, and performing songs from Irish, American, Scottish, and English traditions. As they began to collaborate first in larger ensembles, but most enduringly as a duo they also recognized an affinity for other more contemporary idioms. Whatever the source songs of the Irish travelers, Arkansas spirituals, or their own compositions their arrangements feature the same carefully wrought interplay of voices and strings. In reference to a pair of their original songs, The New Yorker wrote, with crispy guitar licks and geographic lyrics about a wandering worker it reminds me of Woody Guthries Columbia River song series, and I want to describe it as an Ian Tyson-esque ballad about a man stranded on an island and then lost at sea, but it feels more like a chain of imagistic verses that take you through a dreamscape.

In 2012 they recorded their debut album The Murphy Beds in New York City (a name that subsequently became shorthand for the duo itself).

their great feat turns out to be taking whats best of the classic Irish folk revival without falling into any of its clichés. The resulting album bears repeated listening from start to finish, with ten beautiful, crystalline songs. Huffington Post

As well as playing with many friends and comrades from the trad music world they have also performed and collaborated with artists across the folk spectrum including Beth Orton, Bonnie Prince Billy, Anais Mitchell, and Sam Amidon.