Lee Murdock
Making folk music for the modern era, Lee Murdock’s work is an anthem to the people who live, work, learn and play along the freshwater highways of the Great Lakes. There is an amazing timelessness in this music. Great Lakes songs are made of hard work, hard living, ships that go down and ships that come in. Broadly acknowledged as “the premier interpreter of songs and tales about the Great Lakes,” Lee Murdock combines ragtime, Irish, and blues guitar with his flair for storytelling in songs. His musical influences span fifteen generations, from ancient Celtic harp music to blues, ballads and popular music of our time.

• Solo concerts: Great Lakes Maritime music
  Lee Murdock has uncovered a boundless body of music and stories in the Great Lakes. No two concerts are exactly the same. With his 15th CD in the works, Lee selects songs appropriate to concert locale, regional history, or even simply to satisfy audience requests.
• Lighthouse Legends
  Like the Great Castles of Europe, there is an aura of mystery and romance surrounding the lighthouses on the Inland Seas. Lee's songs and stories share the tragedy and the heroics, the isolation and the beauty and the drama of lighthouse lore and the Life Saving Service.
• Great Lakes Ghosts
  A narrated concert featuring songs of supernatural legends and spooky tales of ghost ships and haunted lighthouses. The perfect fall program for libraries and museums.
• The Christmas Tree Ship Concerts
  A holiday concert commemorating the turn-of-the-century tradition of carrying Christmas trees to ports on the lower Great Lakes. This was the final cargo of the season during the lumber schooner days, after the last of the logs from the northern forests were hauled south to build the cities of the Midwest. The Rouse Simmons was but one of many ships hauling this cargo, though perhaps the most famous and beloved ship of her day.
• Irish in America (Emerald Isle Immigrants)
  Be ready to join in the boisterous chorus of a popular Irish Pub song, share the sly joke in classic old ballad, follow along to a soft instrumental air or vigorous dance tune from the Emerald Isle. Follow the Irish across "The Big Pond" with songs of Irish immigrants, as he celebrates with an anthem honoring those who labored to build the Illinois and Michigan Canal, or traditional tunes from the Beaver Island settlers and more.
• Workshops: Sea Shanty Singing
  Experience the work in the songs adapted by the sailors and crew on Great Lakes vessels during the days of sail. An opportunity for everyone to join in song, and to feel the work that was made easier by these call-and-response songs.
• School assemblies: Folk Songs of the Great Lakes Region
  Tracing the development of the Great Lakes region, including both maritime and songs/stories about the people who settled on the Great Lakes shores. 50 minutes. Adapts for elementary, middle school, and high school.
  • Lake Rhymes CD/Songbook is Lee's study guide for educators, donated to the school with performances or available separately for purchase.
• Ships that Go Down, Ships that Come In
  A multimedia presentation with live music.
• Lee Murdock with the Blue Water Band
  Limited availability as a three and four-piece band.

For more information, contact us or link to Lee's web site.

Artists of Note Home
Dennis Stroughmatt & Creole Stomp | Mark Dvorak | Mike Offutt | Michael Smith

Hear Live Full-Song Performance:
of Standing at the Wheel, with Spoken introduction/storytelling

Sound Clip:
The Scottish Hero

Sound Clip:
Short clip The Ward Line

“...a fine job of re-creating
history and holding it up to
a poet’s light...
-Sing Out! Magazine

”More than anything else audiences are drawn to performers with passion.Lee Murdock’s passion is
the sea, and it’s infectious.”
-Jim Blum, WKSU Radio, Kent, Ohio

Contact: Joann Murdock
630-557-2742 | jmurdock@artistsofnote.com
P.O. Box 11 | Kaneville, IL 60144-0011 USA