John Murry and Michael Timmins – A Little Bit of Grace and Decay

John Murry has lived a series of nightmares. At times it plays like a William Faulkner novel, no surprise since he was adopted before birth by his parents in an agreement with a pregnant Cherokee schoolgirl. Raised by his grandmother (Faulkner’s first cousin) he was sent to a fundamentalist Christian rehab center for smoking and drinking where he says he was raped by other boys repeatedly. There was also an addiction to heroin which came later. Definitely not the stuff that dreams are made of. A Little Bit of Grace and Decay, his album with Michael Timmins, is a quasi-soundtrack to the recently released film, The Graceless Age: The Ballad of John Murry.

The portrait of Murry has more scars and holes in it than one might imagine but is consistent with the Faulkner heritage (William had his own battles with opiates). The picture that comes into focus is one of a man embracing the darkness of American life. Mississippi history is filled with images of a country gone to seed, where the reality varies greatly from the Mississippi the travelogues would have us believe.

Featuring music from A Short History of Decay, re-recorded with Timmins and brother Peter Timmins, along with solo music and a number of pieces not intended for the score, just music that he and Timmins recorded during Murry’s three-day visit to Toronto. The picture that emerges is one of a haunted soul who has gone through Hell and believes to have at last seemed to have reclaimed his life.

As these songs unfold one sees the rancid underbelly of the American dream. Coming through clearly on instrumentals like ‘Alleyway’ is the eerie sound of things being hidden away, brought into focus with the lonesome bass notes and telltale winds of synthesizer. While the songs of Murry are mostly acoustic, they are filled with sadness and desolation, revealing a man living on the edge. “This is loneliness at heart/I’ve never felt so alone/Stars are God’s bullet holes/I’m becoming someone I didn’t know.” Later in the song, when he sings, “Rats run for higher ground,” it couldn’t be more obvious that he sees a bleak landscape.

Now living in Ireland, far away from the misery of life in the states, lines like “Nightmares bore their fruit/ blood ran into my boot” paint a picture that cannot be erased from the memory. Later, on ‘Wrong Man’, he adds, “I have already carried your picture too far from home.” These are not the images of a man happy with the road he has trod. Redemption seems to be far from his mind.

At 45 John Murry seems to have found a certain sense of peace in the Irish landscape. Along with Michael Timmins he has navigated the craggy remnants of his past. A Little Bit of Grace and Decay offers 18 portraits of a man coming to grips with an existence he didn’t ask for, one that he has had the power and courage to survive.

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