BY MAUREEN PARKER for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 10/23/2026
Ok so boom … with a little resonance.
“Resonate” is what the James Lee Murray Band started with at The Spar. To resonate means to fill a space with a deep, full sound or to have a strong emotional or personal impact on someone.
People, they accomplished both.
This band did not come to play with you heaux! It was colorful, rich, fun, and tight. Like Gorilla Glue tight, but whimsical. And you could see the mutual respect and commitment these musicians brought to what they were playing.
David Hudson, you remember him, one of the founders of LTD Presents, told me I needed to come hear them. So yes, I was outside again, up past muh bedtime again, and dragging the next day. Again.
But I keep telling you: I am only outside when it’s worth it.
IT WAS WORTH IT.
For Murray, that sound has roots stretching back to childhood. Growing up in Watsonville, California, in the Monterey Bay area, he was surrounded by music.
His father performed blues, funk, and jazz, and young James tagged along.
His memories include backyard blues parties and nights in Tahoe, playing pool with grown men when he was about six years old before falling asleep on a bench.
His mother played classical music and sang, with listening tastes that included Chicago blues, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, and Guitar Shorty. Where his parents’ musical worlds met, Murray found his own foundation.
“Between the two of them, I think the convergence was like, it was blues and soul, and I was hooked right away.”
He also followed his father into piano tuning and repair. For approximately eight years, he played alongside him in a California band, an experience he describes as his musical education.
But eventually, he felt the pull to explore somewhere new.
In 2020, Murray and his family left California without knowing exactly where they would land. Their daughter was still little, and while they traveled, his wife became pregnant with their son. A stable job brought them to the Pacific Northwest. Kitsap County eventually became home.
What he didn’t know was that musical connections were waiting here, too.
Through musicians including keyboardist Lorenzo Farrell, Murray discovered links between the Northwest scene and the California community he already knew.
“It was just like there were friends I didn’t even know I had nearby.”
That sense of belonging comes through when he talks about the James Lee Murray Band. With David Hudson on drums, Brady Kish on bass, Jeff Conlin on keys, and Stephan Papasoff on guitar, Murray has found musicians who encourage him to take ownership of his role as bandleader.
“There’s a lot of skill and talent and creativity that is available within the group,” he said.
They also remind him that he’s in charge.
He’s learning to embrace that responsibility with humility and confidence. And while his earlier musical experiences helped build his foundation, this band gives him room to explore a sound with more bite, attitude, and funk.
Let me tell you: the funk was present and accounted for.
One moment at The Spar made that chemistry especially clear. Murray introduced “Shamrocks,” a song the band had been performing for months, but with an arrangement he hadn’t been happy with.
At rehearsal just before the show, he asked the musicians to try something different and reworked the tune.
People. It was a bop.
The look Murray and Kish exchanged afterward told its own little story.
Something had clicked, and we got to be in the room when it happened.
That willingness to follow an idea also led Murray somewhere beyond the stage: into a children’s book.
“Jellyfish Kite” began as a song he wrote for his daughter, Aya, before she was born. In it, a jellyfish looks up from the ocean, sees a jellyfish-shaped kite flying overhead, and wonders whether she might fly, too.
The seagulls have opinions about that.
The jellyfish has dreams.
For Murray, the story carried a message for his daughter about refusing to let other people decide what she could become.
Turning the lyrics into an illustrated book was an idea he wanted to see through. He enjoyed creating it and participating in bookstore events, but he isn’t plotting a full-time career as a children’s author.
Music remains his primary focus. Still, another book isn’t out of the question.
“Never say never,” he said.
That same openness is shaping his approach to performing. Watching artists he admires, including Marcel Smith and Tia Carroll, has encouraged him to trust his own expression instead of trying to reproduce a recording exactly.
“If you trust the players you’re with, and you trust yourself and you’ve put in the work,” he said, “you can really get into a flow.
At The Spar, that trust was visible.
Now, Murray wants to bring more original songs into the band’s repertoire and eventually capture their chemistry in the studio. An EP is a goal, not an announced release, but he’s excited about what these musicians bring to his writing.
“Every time I give them a tune, they know what to do with it and they make it pop.”
As plans for 2027 take shape, listeners can find confirmed dates at jamesleemurray.com.
Meanwhile, Murray is finding something that goes beyond a busy calendar: a community that loves the music he loves, and room to keep growing within it.
I went out for a show and found a musician learning how much freedom there is in trusting himself and the people beside him.
And yes, I’ll be outside for this band again.
Apparently, my bedtime is negotiable.
