Chris Murphy is no musical slouch. Over a 25-year career, he has amassed an astonishing 500-plus works, including just under 20 solo albums and around 20 collaborative albums. He’s primarily a violinist, but his music encompasses so many styles. “In another era,” he says, “I would have played square dances, and loved it. I would have been a court musician in Versailles in the 17th Century, or a violinist in a circus orchestra.”
He was born into an Irish-Italian family near New York City, and he was soon entranced by the sounds and grooves of his neighbours’ traditional music. Yet soon, the inevitable power that listening to rock’n’roll had on him cemented his future musical passions. “My real hero,” he says, “was David Lindley. Hearing him play fiddle…