By Sonny Smith
When I met musician John Murry, Memphis transplant, I naturally asked him about hometown. He told me: “When I first got out here I had to be told I couldn’t keep a pistol in my glove box.”
Murry has been here for four years – creating a music label, Evangeline Records; playing in a few bands; ruffling some feathers; and raising his daughter. “The thing is, people from Memphis are basically from Mississippi, or maybe Arkansas,” he said. “Memphis is the capitol of Mississippi. There is a fair share of disputes settled by knives and guns…. The scene there is kind of beautifully dysfunctional – everybody chasing after everybody’s wives and stuff.”
He’s put a lot of records out in a short time with Evangeline. “My family was intertwined with William Faulkner’s. The Murrys and the Faulkners intermarried three or four times,” he said. “My grandfather owned some property signed over by Bill, and when he died the grandkids got a little bit of money.” His friend, artist Bob Frank, also brought some money to the project.
“It’s a ridiculously fair label,” Murry continued. “I just built it the way I thought labels were supposed to be. I just don’t make anything. I don’t think artists should ever be in debt to a label. Artists are already in debt – spiritual debt. Without artistic freedom you don’t have art – there can’t be a compromise. I don’t tell the artists anything about how it should be or what would sell.”