I am mainly a self-taught musician, what some call a natural. When I was a baby, I remember hearing harmony being sung (on the radio) and I loved it. It stuck with me. I started picking out songs on a toy piano at around age three. I wrote my first blues song when I was twelve years old, after receiving a folk guitar as a gift from my parents, and kept writing through the years. The Murphy musicians go back many generations in the USA, Canada and Ireland. My early childhood musical memories were of relatives and friends of the family who would bring their instruments to our home to jam with my father, Chester Murphy, a finger-picking guitarist and soulful singer of country and folk tunes. My early influences included my father and watching him play, I adapted his finger-picking guitar style. Other influences were Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash and various folk artists. Later influences include Johnny Winter, Billie Holiday, Memphis Minnie, Janis Joplin & more. While in my twenties, I signed with B.M.I. (Broadcast Music International) as a song-writer and performer.

I began writing jingles and performing them for a local recording studio shortly after graduating high school. Some of them won awards, but there was not much recognition for me as the writer or performer of them at that time. Ten years later, I went to U.M.A. and studied core requirements and electives, with a heavy concentration of music and sociology, earning an associate of science in general studies. After getting my degree, I did some substitute teaching and a lot of tutoring in various subjects (including art and music). In addition, I taught night courses at Lewiston High School in vocal technique/harmony, and piano. I had a studio in Auburn where I taught group and private lessons in voice and piano/keyboard as well.

I have a working knowledge of French and a few other languages and sometimes will include some French songs or a Danish tune here and there in my concerts.

I have won numerous state and international awards for writing and performing music from DECMA (Downeast Country Music Association) and NACMAI (North America Country Music Association International).