Bobby Murray

Perhaps you've heard his guitar work on "The Sopranos" … Read Full Bio ↴Bobby Murray

Perhaps you've heard his guitar work on "The Sopranos" or seen him on the Tonight Show, Austin City Limits or Late Night w/Letterman. If you've seen Etta James perform in the last twenty years, you've seen and heard Bobby. As Robert Santelli of Downbeat says,"He's the one that makes you take notice."

When legendary diva Etta James was on the lookout for a blues guitarist to augment her Roots Band in 1988, it was Bobby Murray who got the call. Alternating his duties between Etta and his own band, the transplanted Californian's latest offering, "Live and Lowdown" leads his Detroit-based blues ensemble into yet another soundscape of this distinctly American genre.

Few blues guitarists working today possess the versatility Bobby commands and fewer still have the ability to move an audience as he can. Born in Nagoya, Japan, Murray grew up in a military family whose international travels eventually brought them to Tacoma, Washington. It was there that Murray befriended Robert Cray and they played in a band together throughout high school. The entertainment at their graduation was none other than Albert Collins, who would later become both friend and mentor to the young Murray. He performed off and on with Collins for the next twenty years. Although Albert is no longer with us, he continues to inspire Murray today.

Bobby would later record with B.B. King and Robert Cray on the aptly titled "Playing With My Friends" on King's Grammy award-winning album, "Blues Summit." Blues and soul legends Murray has performed or recorded with include John Lee Hooker, Johnny Guitar Watson, Lowell Fulson, Taj Mahal, Otis Rush, Percy Mayfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Clay, longtime friend and musical associate Frankie Lee, Sugar Pie Desanto, Mark Naftalin and a host of others. You can check out Bobby's guitar work on numerous Etta James recordings, including Grammy winners "Let's Roll" and "Blues to the Bone." Murray released his debut album "The Blues is Now" in 1996 on the now defunct Viceroy label. He moved to Detroit soon afterward and began recording and performing with the latest incarnation of the Bobby Murray Band.

"The boy is bad!" - Etta James

"He's so powerful, man!" - B.B. King

"Bobby is the real deal - the product of a love for a tradition that he both honors and applauds." - David Ritz, Grammy award-winning writer and biographer