Joe McMurrian 10/17

Sunday, October 17th
8pm * No Cover
Fort George Brewery
1483 Duane St.-Astoria

Joe McMurrian is a Delta Blues/Roots songwriter/ guitarist based in Portland Oregon. He has a rich capability to infuse tradition with contemporary invention through his intense finger-style, slide guitar work and original storytelling. Joe is deeply influenced by the Delta Blues and American Hill country masters like Skip James, Son House, Doc Boggs, Robert Pete Williams, Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Bukka White, R.L Burnside, Roscoe Holcomb, Blind WIllie Johnson, Lightning Hopkins and modern players like Buddy Guy, Bert Jansch, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Leo Kotke, Doc Watson, James Blood Ulmer, Chris Whitley, Junior Kimbrough and Rajeev Tarnoth. Joe blends all these influences into a powerful modern gumbo that can switch from gut wrenching hard driving deep blue’s to intricate acoustic ballads. Recently Joe has formed the power quartet Woodbrain, signed with Memphis Label Yellow Dog Record and has picked up the electric guitar he used to play so much as a teen and plugged into an amp full of electricity to explore the endless possibilities available to this dynamic new band sound. The result is the new release, Swimming in Turpentine, an album that promises new & exciting things things to come for Blues and Roots music.

When he was 9 Joe found his father’s steel slide guitar up in the attic and decided to start playing. His father still played a little slide and standard guitar that he used to play in the 40’s, so Joe learned the basics of various Willie Nelson, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers songs. 32 years later he still likes it.

In Los Angeles he played every acoustic venue available, as well as receiving weekly airplay on the prominent radio station KCRW in Santa Monica. Joe has performed at countless venues & numerous festivals Including the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival (the past 4 years), Portland Brewers Festival, Park City Utah Founders Tile Bluegrass and Folk Festival, Pasadena Blues Festival, String Summit and the Listening Room concert series in Los Angeles. He has appeared with such luminaries as John Mayhall, Paul Geramia, LouisianaRed, Keb Mo, Paul Livingstone, Eddie Kirkland, John McEuen, Charlie Musslewhite, Preacher Boy, Canned Heat, Sonny Landreth & Little Charley and the Nightcats to name a few. When he performs on stage he is in a way painting with sound, ebbing and flowing towards new realms of experience in the moment.

Recent Posts

2023 3-WAY IPA THREE WAYS

The third and final iteration of Fort George’s biggest Summer Seasonal, 3-Way IPA, releases on Friday, July 1st at the Beer Pier on the scenic Astoria Waterfront, just east of the Megler Bridge. For 11 years, Fort George and two of our closest friends have marked the beginning of summer with a 3-Way IPA: a…
Read More

Spruce Picking 2023

Every year, right around the beginning of May, Fort George packs a lunch and goes out into the forest. Come with us, come into the forest for Spruce Picking. We have a lot of options when it comes to forests in this area. We’ve got Spruce, Hemlock, Doug Fir, privately owned forest, State Forests, Federal Forests,…
Read More

Java the Hop 2023

Unique, Single-Origin Hops + exciting, Single-Origin Coffees = Java the Hop Fort George & Coava Coffee If you’ve only seen one movie in your entire life – chances are it was a Star Wars movie. And if it wasn’t, rest assured that it had some similar plot points. The timeless appeal of highly-accessible pop science…
Read More