Shaun Murphy
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Murphy (born Cheryl Murphy in Omaha, Nebraska), is an American R&B singer-songwriter, best known for her powerhouse singing style. Her recording career started in 1971 with Motown Records.
Murphy moved to Detroit, Michigan as a teenager, taking the name Stoney for many years. Shaun shared the stage with many Detroit based bands, including Wilson Mower Pursuit and Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers, in venues such as Detroit's historic Grande Ballroom, as well as various large state fairground music venues. She was soon noticed by an employee of Motown in a touring theater production along with Texas native Meat Loaf. The two were signed by Rare Earth Records, a division of Motown Records, as "Stoney and Meatloaf" in 1971. The pairing was short-lived, and became defunct, as a decision of Motown management. Only Murphy was retained under contract after the breakup of the duo.
After a period of inactivity with the new division of Motown in Los Angeles, she made a decision to leave Motown, due to corporate changes within the company, and contacted Detroit music producer Punch Andrews for possible opportunities back in her high school home town. Murphy then relocated back to Detroit, to work with Bob Seger, in 1973, with The Borneo Band. Murphy had worked with Seger previously in his very early years prior to his later notoriety. She has continued on with Seger on most all studio session work since 1973, in addition to all of his tours since 1978.
She returned again to live in Los Angeles in 1985 to work with Eric Clapton on his "Behind the Sun" album. Murphy was then offered a position by Clapton as a member of his band to do the entire tour after hearing her vocal style. The "Behind The Sun" tour was featured at the first Live Aid concert in 1985.
Murphy's career in vocals has been both as band lead singer and session singer throughout her many years in the music industry. She has sung, toured, and recorded with such acts as The Moody Blues, Bob Seger, Herbie Hancock, Phil Collins, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Maria Muldaur, Bruce Hornsby, Michael Bolton, J.J. Cale, Coco Montoya, Alice Cooper, Washington, D.C. legend Chuck Brown, and Little Feat, in addition to Broadway theater, in national road companies in two popular rock musicals, Hair and Sgt. Pepper's.
In 1993, she became a full-time member, as well as the first female member, of the Los Angeles based band Little Feat. She stayed on for the next fifteen years, recording and touring with them until 2009 when she decided to concentrate on her passion for the blues.
In 2009, Murphy decided to go on her own. In September 2009 she released the album "Livin' The Blues". A second album, "The Trouble With Lovin', followed in 2010. Late in 2011, Murphy released a DVD and live album both titled "Shaun Murphy Live at Callahan's", recorded at Callahan's Music Hall, Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Her album "Ask for the Moon", released 2012, was nominated for three Grammy Awards and won two Blues Blast music awards.
(Shaun Murphy at Riverfront Blues Fest, Wilmington, Delaware 2010)