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Sincerely Iris

These songs veer from spacey, modal musing to hyperdrive rock to highly melodic and structured pop, each with a lyrical knife's edge that puts them into that fabulously rich and never specific singer/songwriter territory.

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Hometown	Charlotte, NC
Genres	Folk, Rock
Band Members	Todd Murray
Achievements	» more
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:	Artist / Band Member Todd Murray todd@sincerelyiris.com 513 520 2386
# Years Experience Performing Live:	10
# Live Perfomances Past Six-months:	60
Market Draw:	Cincinnati: 31-50; Savannah: 0-30; Denver: 31-50; Chicago: 0-30
Venue History:	Livewire - Savannah, GA The Mad Frog - Cincinnati, OH Tantra Lounge - Savannah, GA The Rock House - Tybee Island, GA Southgate House - Newport, KY Avogadro's Number - Fort Collins, CO The Red Line Tap - Chicago, IL Elbo Room - Chicago, IL
Opener Experience:	Megan Jean and the KFB; Judith Avers
Similar Artists:	Ryan Adams; Bob Dylan; Jeff Buckley; Foo Fighters
Performing Rights Society:	Other
Discography:	Sincerely, Iris - The Great Unknown LP—2011; Sincerely, Iris - Headlight Sonata LP—2009; Todd Murray - Boys, Girls and Fools EP—2007

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About the Artist

Sincerely, Iris consists of singer/songwriter Todd Murray. He has a sound that can be summed up best as “road trip music.” It’s a style that’s always changing, and always moving along. Whether it be gypsy-esque or like Kerouac’s beat up old truck,...

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Music

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Achievements

Press Coverage

The Great Unknown Album Review by Sincerely, Iris
SINCERELY, IRIS The Great Unknown One of the most interesting of Savannah's newest crop of acoustic artists, Sincerely, Iris makes music that gleefully gallops across easy categorization. These songs veer from spacey, modal musing to hyperdrive rock to highly melodic and structured pop, each with a lyrical knife's edge that puts them into that fabulously rich and never specific singer/songwriter territory. Still, the most primal joy of The Great Unknown is in the fabric of the DIY recording itself - Todd Murray, who is Sincerely, Iris, has overdubbed every instrument, including bass, percussion, keyboards and electric guitar. His acoustic guitar is always in the forefront, using open tunings, octave chords, strange-sounding fingerpicking counterpoints, classical motifs and flourishes of jazz and flamenco. The juxtaposition, strangely, works, creating an enormously satisfying musical tapestry. Murray has been compared, frequently, to Jeff Buckley, and you can hear it in the yearning, almost melancholy of his lyrics and the moodiness of his vocals. "She Moves Me" and the exquisite, waltz-time "Dear Clementine" have echoes of early Gordon Lightfoot, and the spectral images of jazz-era Joni, non-twee Sufjan and early Iron & Wine appear from time to time. The one I keep coming back to is "The Great Unknown," the album's title song. Starting with the nostalgic sound of a film projector, it's a road song - a salute, no doubt, to Murray's days as a Chicago-based traveler and ever-hungry touring performer. This song has a melody that won't leave me alone, and a brilliant guitar figure that evokes an open road, full of endless possibilities. The past is only a fading ghost. So I give it away to the great unknown. Along with Dare Dukes, whose second studio recording is due to arrive early in the New Year, Sincerely, Iris is evidence that Savannah, despite its ripe rock ‘n' rollers, eclectic hipster groups and the myriad other talismans of musical fertility, has one hell of an acoustic punch. (The Great Unknown is available at sincerelyiris.bandcamp.com. Physical CDs, and ITunes availability, are forthcoming.)

The Road Underneath the Headlight Sonata by Sincerely, Iris
Todd Murray, a Chicago singer-songwriter, is not the first to be inspired by Jeff Buckley — but he may well be the first to relate that inspiration to sensitivity and balance. His stage moniker, Sincerely, Iris, came about as a reflection of these views on music. "[Iris] is sort of feminine, I kind of like that aspect. I really like girl singers like Billie Holiday and I like Jeff Buckley and how he had that feminine aspect to his voice. That's what music is to me — the harder stuff and the more sensitive stuff all in one."......

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