Lee Murdock sings a vivid musical portrait of life on the Great Lakes. Murdock is a renowned midwestern musician who has released ten albums and CDs of folk and maritime music.

 

Noted as a fluent instrumentalist on the six and twelve-string guitars, Murdock combines ragtime, Irish, blues and folk styles with his flair for storytelling in songs. His musical influences span fifteen generations. Murdock began his folk career in the Chicago area in the mid-1970s, expanding his repetoire of blues and popular music as his interest in folk music and the maritime tradition grew.

 

To listen to Lee Murdock's music is to visualize the long, heavily laden deck of an iron ore freighter being tossed by malevolent waves, to envision a choir singing, feel a lover's lament, nurture a love for an isolated shoreline...and much more.

 

"The discovery of this vast collection of American maritime music was amazing to me," says Murdock. "And to think that it exists over a thousand miles from any salt water." Murdock blends the traditional songs to appeal to contemporary musical tastes, reaching out to new audiences with his stories and songs from the island waterways.

 

Audiences across the North American continent have a growing fascination with his stories and music, and Murdock has toured from Oregon to Ontario and down to Orlando. His ten recordings are aired on radio stations across the land, and have been consistently rated in the top 10 or top 25 recordings of folk music programmers.