About
Alexi Murdoch sounds so much like Nick Drake that he could easily be the reincarnation of the late, brooding minstrel. Seriously, there are moments on his 2002 Four Songs EP that seem to channel specific snippets of Drake's "Northern Sky." When you dig into Murdoch's biography this makes the similarities even more uncanny, especially when you consider the fact that the Drake hailed from the sprawling green countryside of Tanworth-in-Arden, England while Murdoch arrived in America by way of the equally rural Scotland. But since none of the Glaswegian members of Teenage Fanclub inflect anything like Drake, so you can't help but wonder if Murdoch is purposefully affecting something and playing it up, or if it all those winsome laments comes as naturally to him as it did to his musical forebear. But no matter what it is, it works. Despite all those similarities, it wasn't until he landed in Los Angeles that things started going well for Murdoch's whispery folk songs. After being invited to perform on DJ Nic Harcourt's widely popular KCRW show Morning Becomes Eclectic, Murdoch was courted by some major labels but instead of making any long time commitments, he wound up licensing his hushed hit "Orange Sky" to the soundtrack for the fireman film Ladder 49 as well as the television show The O.C.. The folkie went on to release his debut LP, Time Without Consequence, in mid-2006.
- Eric Shea
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