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We Are The Woods

We are the woods. It is a vital and stark declaration. It also happens to be true. We are an underground system of roots and elf tunnels. We love pleasure, sunrises, and howling with the wolves. We write and record songs that speak directly to you, dear reader.

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Hometown	New York, NY
Genres	Indie Pop, New Folk
Band Members	Jessie Murphy, Marcia Webb, Tyler Beckwith
Achievements
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:
# Years Experience Performing Live:	2
Market Draw:	Home Market: 251-300
Performing Rights Society:	BMI

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About the Artist

We are a matriarchal tribe, lead by Jessie Murphy and Marcia Webb, two mid wives of music and revelry that know how to get a party started in a medieval, throw down the gauntlet kind of way. Riding high off the success of their seminal debut, Eight...

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New York City Lights (Live on a Rooftop)

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Achievements

Upcoming Editor Picks for the OurStage Facebook page!

Reached 50th in Best of Pop chart in 2011. In the top 100 for 7 weeks.

Top 40 in Indie Pop, February 2011

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Press Coverage

Eight Belles-Review by Doug Simpson, Campus Circle
Childhood nostalgia strolls through Eight Belles, the debut from folk/chamber-pop trio Jessie Murphy in the Woods. Bright pop pieces, like “When I Am a Horse Again” and “Tour de Force,” have a brisk, positive sheen, but dig deeper and there is indirect darkness that pierces the songs’ surface sunshine. Organic instrumentation (panpipes, flute, clarinet, oboe and more) softens the dimmed edges of the nine-track album. On “In the Woods” Murphy sings in a high, clear voice of sorrow and dying beautiful. “We Are the Ones” discloses the difference between dreams (romantic idealism) and reality (heartache and pain). Even humorous moments have a sober side. Whimsical “God Save Owen Wilson” reveals roses hide thorns. The recurrent theme of horses (the daydream of many little girls) is used as an escape mechanism (“When I Am a Horse Again”), but ultimately connotes suffering and death, as told during the true tale of the title track.

Chicks With Guns Magazine, Review of Eight Belles by Victoria Hiil, Urban Pop Editor
Remember when you were a kid and you would see your teacher outside of school doing something normal like go to the store and you would think how strange it was to see them being human. Well, imagine that your music teacher had a band and was touring the country playing shows during summer vacation. Let me introduce you to Jessie Murphy, Marcia Wood and Amy Wood, otherwise known as Jessie Murphy In The Woods. Jessie, Marcia and Amy are three music teachers in New York City and when they are not teaching music to kids, they are writing and performing lush, beautiful folk-pop music. This three-piece band plays everything- piano, woodwinds, horn and guitar…I am sure there are more instruments, but I would not be able to name them. The album opens with “God Save Owen Wilson,” which speaks to seeing yourself in the problems and issues of other people. “God Save Owen Wilson/He’s A Lot Lilke Me/He’s Got The Funny/And It Rides Him Hard” is a powerful line- so much emotion and vunerability spoken in a few words. The track is touching and deep. “When I Am A Horse Again” is a fairy tale set to music about childhood dreams and wishes and how perfect the little moments of childhood were and as adults it’s hard to find those moments again. “New York City Lights” is a love song to the girls hometown. I have never been to New York, but this song makes you feel like a native. An interesting track, is the title track “Eight Belles.” When I saw the name, I thought “what a whimsical name for a song,” until I realized that the track is about the 2008 Kentucky Derby horse that had to be put down after an injury. “Eight Belles” is an amazing album and the band is innovative in their approach to music. Who knew that woodwinds and pan pipes could sound so cool.

teaching Trio Lets Loose Through Song by Stephanie Simon, NY1
Three city teachers are making music outside their classrooms and getting lots of high marks along the way. NY1's Stephanie Simon filed the following report. The three lovely ladies of "Jessie Murphy in the Woods" are all music teachers in New York City. Jessie Murphy teaches preschool, Marcia Wood teaches kindergarten through fifth in the Bronx and Amy Wood teaches pre-K through fifth in Brooklyn. Marcia and I talk about the fact that they probably don't think that we exist outside of the classroom," Murphy said. "They probably think that we sleep in there and that we have our holidays and all that stuff so it's not really that big of a deal for them but sometimes they've told me that I was a rock star, just of their own volition, you know, without any prompting. If they ask what I do outside of school I say I am in a band and they sort of have this fantasy image of you being a rock star or whatever, especially the little ones. I just let them daydream and imagine what they will," Wood said. The trio met during graduate school at Columbia's Teacher College where they were all getting their masters in music education. They've been band mates for about two years now playing their enchanting blend of classical instruments and pop style. Their new CD "Eight Belles" is being released on April 20th with a kick off show at Webster Hall on April 16th. All three say spending time with children helps with their music and performance. There are so many elements of being in this band that have helped me in my teaching and vice versa. The whimsy, the fantasy of kind of being kids again, I think plays into our music which is fun and I am around kids from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. everyday so when I go to rehearsal at five, that doesn't just go away," Wood said. Jessie Murphy in the Woods" definitely has its own sound and of course, its own look. We wanted two things, we wanted a uniform that we didn't have to think about too much and we could always put on and just have. And we also wanted sort of an outfit that was emblematic of the whimsical and outsider element of our music, so tutus sounded pretty good," Murphy said. It's easy, you don't have to iron it, everybody loves to wear tulle, who doesn't want to wear a tutu?" Wood said. For more information on "Jessie Murphy in the Woods," visit jessiemurphyinthewoods.com.

Icon Magazine, Review of Eight Belles by
Jessie Murphy in the Woods is simply cool. We couldn’t make up our minds on our favorite tracks. They are memorable (“Tour de Force”, “Pretty Machine”), fun (“God Save Owen Wilson”) and sometimes whimsical (“Eight Belles”) and it’s one of those albums that will be in heavy rotation for awhile. “Tour de Force” topped our February picks for 2010 with its sick drum beats, flute and crazy lyrics, “…catch me on the corner, catch me at the gym, catch me making out with the Doublemint twins.” Eight Belles is the band’s debut and Jessie Murphy’s vocals bear a likeness to Leslie Feist, which is a plus in our book. Jessie Murphy’s delivery is gentle and sometimes hauntingly beautiful. All three members are hot New York City public school music teachers. Catch them at The Knitting Factory on April 10.

Femenist Review, Eight Belles by Abigail Chance
While some might not be into the cutesy, fairytale-like sound and lyrics of the New York City pop-folk group Jessie Murphy in the Woods, there is no denying the magical harmony produced by the three talented women. These five tracks, a demo of their debut album Eight Belles, are a collaboration project lead by singer-songwriter Jessie Murphy (vocals and guitar) and featuring her friends Marcia Webb (vocals, Wurlitzer, flute and pan pipes) and Amy Stratton (horn, flute, percussion and organ). The trio of women, all music teachers in New York City, met at Columbia University in 2008 while pursuing a Master’s degree in Music. Since then they have toured both North America and the United Kingdom. Noted for their anti-folk style, the group tries to avoid the constraints of stereotypical, over-commercialized music with their unique instrumental and vocal sounds. With a sound less pop than similar artists, such as Au Revoir Simone and Feist, the album is a beautiful mixing of clear vocals, bells, pretty harmonies, and poetically melancholic lyrics. This combination creates an ethereal, magical, and at times, haunting quality that resonates throughout the album. The five tracks on the album have lyrics about life, horses and love lost, especially the loss of child-like innocence, a literary theme that many can relate to. While I am more attracted to music with an edgier sound, I can appreciate Jessie Murphy in the Woods’ talent. Their smooth, lullaby style makes this music an excellent soundtrack to my cooking with my dear friend and roommate Sylvia, who is a creative fiction writer and lover of fairytales. Starting off with the sorrowful “New York City Lights,” the album continues with “In the Woods,” which invokes images of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is followed by the simplistic, pure acoustic sound of “God Save Owen Wilson.” Finishing off with their most popular songs “When I am a Horse Again” and “Eight Belles,” a eulogy to a horse that died in the 2008 Kentucky derby, the demo is a beautiful representation of the group’s songwriting and harmonies, and well worth a listen.

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We Are The Woods

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