Joe Murphy has been a fixture in the East Coast blues scene for the past 40 years. He got his start sitting in with Dutch Mason in 1972 and played harp and guitar on Dutchie’s last album, Half Ain’t Been Told. He also played harmonica on Garrett Mason’s Juno award winning “I’m Just A Man,” and has played with most of the blues acts who have come east in the last thirty years.
His Water Street Blues Band has backed up Otis Rush, Johnnie Johnson, Johnny Sansone, Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne and the late great Pinetop Perkins, just to name a few. Joe’s most memorable gigs include playing harp for three nights with John Lee Hooker and a wonderful week playing harp for Sunnyland Slim.
He has 5 CD’s – two with his Water Street Blues Band and two side projects, one with Johnny Sansone and his latest, She Moves Me, featuring Bhrath Rajukumar. Joe and his band also have had one of the longest running blues matinees in Halifax, playing every Saturday at Your Father’s Mustache for the last 21 years.