David Lee Murphy

David Lee Murphy (born January 7, 1959) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known for his #1 country hits "Dust on the Bottle" and "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", as well as the hit songs "Party Crowd", "Out with a Bang", "Every Time I Get Around You", "The Road You Leave Behind", and "Loco". He has released five solo studio albums: Out with a Bang (1994), Gettin' Out the Good Stuff (1996), We Can't All Be Angels (1997), Tryin' to Get There (2004), and No Zip Code (2018). His songs "Just Once" and "We Can't All Be Angels" appeared on the soundtracks of the films 8 Seconds (1994) and Black Dog (1998), respectively.

Murphy took a hiatus from recording in 2004, and has co-written several singles for other artists, including the hits "

Murphy was born in Herrin, Illinois, the son of Jessie (West) and Dr. Jack Murphy. His father died from a heart attack on December 17, 1982, when Murphy was 23.^[2][1] By 1983, he had moved to Nashville, Tennessee, seeking a successful career in country music. Two years later, he was spotted by record producer Tony Brown at a club in Nashville, although Brown did not sign Murphy to a record deal until nearly a decade later.^[3] In the meantime, however, Murphy did co-write album cuts for Reba McEntire and Doug Stone.^[3]

Musical career

Murphy's first recording for

Gettin' Out the Good Stuff was the title of Murphy's second album, released in 1996. It produced back-to-back Top 5 singles in "Every Time I Get Around You" and "The Road You Leave Behind".^[1][4] "Every Time I Get Around You" hit #2 on the RPM Country Tracks in Canada and was named that publication's top song for 1996.^[5]

Murphy's third and final album for MCA, titled We Can't All Be Angels, was released in 1997.^[6] In a 1997 interview, Murphy revealed that he had intended for this album to be experimental in nature, saying that he "wanted to create just a whole different tone, sonically. I just wanted a different sounding record."^[6] We Can't All Be Angels had two singles, "All Lit up in Love" and "Just Don't Wait Around 'Til She's Leavin'", peaking at #25 and #37 on the country chart.^[1][4]

2000s

By the 2000s, Murphy had shifted his focus to songwriting. One of his first cuts in the 2000s was the title track to

Koch Entertainment signed Murphy to his second recording contract in 2004. That year, he released his fourth studio album, Tryin' to Get There. The album, whose title track was co-written by Waylon Jennings prior to his death in 2002,^[7] produced the Top Five hit "Loco", which reached #5 in 2004. The only other single from Tryin' to Get There was "Inspiration", a collaboration with singer and guitarist Lee Roy Parnell, which peaked at #48.

Following the closure of the Koch Nashville record label, Murphy continued working as a songwriter, scoring his first outside Number One with

Other Murphy co-writes include Thompson Square's "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not" and "Everything I Shouldn't Be Thinking About", Kenny Chesney's "Live a Little", "Pirate Flag", and "Bar at the End of the World", Aldean's "The Only Way I Know", Jake Owen's "Anywhere with You", Blackberry Smoke's "Ain't Much Left of Me", and The Road Hammers' "Get On Down the Road".

In 2017, Murphy signed to Reviver Records and announced that he would release a new album, No Zip Code. The album is produced by Kenny Chesney and Buddy Cannon, Chesney's longtime producer.^[8]

Charitable efforts

In 2000, Murphy hosted a series of concerts in his hometown of Herrin, Illinois, raising $25,000 for the Jack Murphy fund, which David Lee started in honor of his father, Dr. Jack Murphy, a local civic leader and educator.^[9]

Discography

• Out with a Bang (1994)
• Gettin' Out the Good Stuff (1996)
• We Can't All Be Angels (1998)
• Tryin' to Get There (2004)
• No Zip Code
  (2018)

See also

• List of songs written by David Lee Murphy

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Official website