The Steel Guitar Forum

In 2001, The Journal Of Country Music published a lengthy article on Joaquin, written by Chicago area musician/musicologist Kenneth Rainey.

It is easily the most thorough thing every published on Murphey. Rainey even managed to get an interview with the man himself and quotes Joaquin directly.

Download it here:

http://tangleweed.org/blog/uploads/earl ... ey_jcm.pdf

It's PDF format and runs several thousand words.

Great stuff. Thanks, Mitch.

Mitch: That was a great article and ultimately a very sad Bio. I agree with Joaquin's take on Johhny Weiss's Guitar style of playing. I always thought it was the weak spot in where Spade and Tex were taking the Bands. Most of the Section work with the Guitars was Joaquin, Johnny, and Smokey Rogers playing one of the parts in the three part harmony melodies and riffs. Later on when Tex Williams took over the Band he hired Benny Garcia who fit in much better with the Band IMHO. There never has been and probably never will be another Joaquin.

Strange as it would seem, Joaquin and Vance Terry appear to have shared a very similar destiny.

Thanks for sharing that. I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for this article. Hearing Murphey for the first time was like a bolt from the blue and changed my life.

The C6, high G is noted. I wonder when he first used it?

The 'Murph" album is beautiful and very melancholic. His fate seems very unjust. Far from being obsolete as a result of the emergence of the PSG, his work still shines brilliantly. It is like comparing a charcoal drawing with an oil painting. The value has nothing to do with the medium. It is the artistry.

Guy Cundell wrote: It is like comparing a charcoal drawing with an oil painting. The value has nothing to do with the medium. It is the artistry.

Well put. I couldn't have expressed it better.

Thanks for posting this gem!

Hi folks--

Thanks for your kind words regarding my article on Joaquin Murphey. If you're interested in reading more about the Cooley/ Williams bands, I also wrote a piece for the same publication on Larry 'Pedro' DePaul.

You can download a PDF of it here:

http://www.tangleweed.org/blog/2007/06/ ... ro-depaul/

Kenneth Rainey
Chicago, IL

Welcome to the Forum, Kenneth - way to make a splash!

Harpist, Spike Featherstone also played Flute which was incorporated into some of the arrangements. I saw him play Flute sometimes at the Riverside Rancho.