Jimmy Murphy born 11 October 1925

Only the most devoted country fan will have heard of Jimmy Murphy-.-a singer inspired by the folk-country and thriving gospel traditions of the 1930s and 40s. Murphy recorded a handful of albums over the course of 20 years, which were eventually confined to the vaults of Columbia and RCA. 

Despite his relative obscurity, Murphy was an outstanding guitarist. He was also a writer of memorable songs and hymns with a down-home and bluesy quality that would impress even the most secular country fan. A hardened traditionalist at the cost of his celebrity, Murphy refused to conform to the norms of the Nashville music scene-.-in the 60s and 70s he was probably the only musician signed to a major label, playing mostly in the traditional vein. His wife, Florine, occasionally joined him on some of his recordings, with a peg-on-the-nose voice and a cool guitar strumming rhythm that's hard to forget. 

Murphy was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His father, a bricklayer, was a blues enthusiast, and so the young Murphy grew up listening to musicians such as Lead Belly and Blind Boy Fuller. Murphy had already made it to radio by the middle of the 1940s, appearing on local station WBRC's Happy Hal Burns Show. In 1949 he relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee and auditioned for Dinner Bell, a show on WROL hosted by Archie Campbell. Campbell had Murphy meet Chet Atkins, whom Murphy eventually gave a demo; RCA Victor subsequently signed him to a publishing deal and recorded him in January 1951 with just himself on guitar and vocals and Anita Carter playing bass. 

The resulting single, "Electricity," was received enthusiastically by all those present, but it died on the vine, as did its B-side, a cautionary tale about a teenage girl gone astray called "Mother Where Is Your Daughter Tonight." Both songs were stylistic and thematic throwbacks practically to the 1930s and displayed the eclectic nature of Murphy's music. None of his other RCA sides sold, including "Big Mama Blues" and "Ramblin' Heart" -- both of which featured more prominent backup with electric instruments -- and the label dropped him after a year. 

He continued, however, to perform on WROL, and moved to WNOX in the middle of the 1950s. In 1955, Don Law signed Murphy to Columbia Records and had him record a number of rockabilly sides, but none of these charted. He tried to solve this problem at his second session in May of 1956, where he cut a number called "Sixteen Tons Rock n' Roll," a piece that seemed to everyone like the song he'd been looking for. It failed to hit, however, and none of the other material from that session did any better. Murphy was dropped by Columbia in 1956, but he kept playing around Knoxville between bricklaying jobs, He  returned in 1962 to record for Ark Records, Midnite, Loyal, Rimrock, and Starday over the next few years. 

He went into retirement until the Library of Congress re-released his first single, "Electricity", on a compilation. Richard Spottswood found Murphy and asked him to begin recording again; the result was the full-length Electricity, released on Sugar Hill Records in 1978. The record, which had a pre-stardom Ricky Skaggs aboard, was an artistic and commercial success. Further recording and a tour had been planned, but Murphy died in 1981 before they could be completed.  He was 55 years old and left behind eight children and many grandchildren. He didn't leave behind any hits, but then chart success has never determined talent and originality among the roots music fraternity, and Jimmy Murphy had both in abundance. 

He has remained a cult figure among rockabilly enthusiasts, and in 1989 Bear Family Records collected his RCA and Columbia recordings (16 songs recorded between 1951 and 1956) and issued them on CD as Sixteen Tons Rock & Roll. 21 recordings from the 1960s were issued in 1999 on the Ace Records (UK) label under the title Southern Roots: The Legendary Starday-REM Sessions 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Ace Records & All Music)