Shaun Murphy (born May 6, 1948) is an American blues and R&B singer songwriter, best known for her powerhouse singing style. Sometimes credited as Stoney, her recording career started in 1971 with

Motown Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...

Career

Murphy shared the stage with many Detroit-based bands, including Wilson Mower Pursuit and

Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers was an American funk band, signed to Ubiquity Records. They toured with Stoney Murphy and Meat Loaf in the early 1970s. Their song, "Searching for Soul", was Sampling (music), sampled in the 2006 Beyoncé song, "S ...

, in venues such as Detroit's

Grande Ballroom The Grande Ballroom ( ') is a historic live music venue located at 8952 Grand River Avenue in the Petosky-Otsego neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. The building was designed by Detroit engineer and architect Charles N. Agree in 1928 and origin ...

, as well as the first

Ann Arbor Blues Festival Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival is a music festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that started in 1972 from the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, which itself began in 1969. Although the festival has had a tumultuous history and suspended operations in 200 ...

in 1969, along with various large state fairground music venues. She was soon noticed by an employee of

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

in a touring theater production along with Texas native

Meat Loaf Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), known professionally as Meat Loaf, was an American rock singer and actor. He was noted for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. He is on t ...

. The two were signed by

Rare Earth Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

, a division of Motown Records, as Stoney and Meatloaf in 1971. That pairing was short-lived and became defunct, although they had previously also been fellow cast members of the Detroit production of ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

''. Only Murphy was retained under contract after the breakup of the duo. Meatloaf and Stoney 1971

After a period of inactivity with the new division of Motown in Los Angeles, she left Motown and contacted Detroit music producer

Punch Andrews Edward "Punch" Andrews is a music producer who produced many albums of Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band. Andrews has also served as a manager for Seger as well as Kid Rock, and managed Grand Funk Railroad Grand Funk Railroad (often shorte ...

for possible opportunities. Murphy then relocated back to Detroit in 1973 to work with

Bob Seger Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...

. She has continued to work with Seger in the studio since 1973, in addition to performing on all of his tours since 1978. She returned again to live in Los Angeles in 1985 while working with

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

on his '' Behind the Sun'' album. Murphy joined Clapton's band for the ensuing tour, which included

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

Murphy's career in vocals has been both as band lead singer and session singer. She has sung, toured, and recorded with such acts as

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The group came to ...

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

Glenn Frey Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, guitarist and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don ...

Joe Walsh Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: the James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr B ...

Maria Muldaur Maria Muldaur (born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato; September 12, 1942) is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and has ...

Bruce Hornsby Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions ...

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

Coco Montoya Coco Montoya (born Henry Montoya, October 2, 1951, Santa Monica, California) is an American blues guitarist and singer and former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Musical career Montoya's career began in the mid-1970s when Albert Colli ...

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

Little Feat Little Feat is an American rock band formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles. George disbanded the group because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979. Surviving ...

and

rock musical A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music. The genre of rock musical may overlap somewhat with album musicals, concept albums and song cycles, as they sometimes tell a story through the rock music, and some album musicals and concept ...

s, ''Hair'' and '' Sgt. Pepper's'', etc. In 1993, she became a full-time member of the Los Angeles-based band

. She stayed on for the next fifteen years, recording and touring with them until 2009. In September 2009

the Shaun Murphy Band The Shaun Murphy Band is a "Blues" musical band. The group was founded in early 2009 by veteran blues and Soul music, soul singer Shaun Murphy (singer), Shaun Murphy. Within a matter of a few weeks after release of the band's first album, ''Liv ...

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 Auburn Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 21,412 at the 2010 census. Before incorporating as a city in 1983, the area was part of the now-defunct Pontiac Township. It is home to Oakland University ...

. Her album ''Ask for the Moon'', released in 2012, was nominated for three

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

and won two Blues Blast music awards. She released ''Cry Of Love'' in 2013. ''Loretta'' was released in February 2015. ''Mighty Gates'' was released in October 2017 on Vision Wall Records. Murphy was nominated for the 2020 Independent Blues Award in five categories: Contemporary Blues CD, Female Artist, Traditional Blues Song, RNB Song, and Road Warrior.

References

Other sources

Interview with Shaun Murphy
at digitalinterviews.com

External links

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at Little Feat {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Shaun (Singer) Living people Motown artists American blues singers American rock singers American session musicians Writers from Cedar Rapids, Iowa Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska Musicians from Detroit American soul musicians Little Feat members Musicians from Cedar Rapids, Iowa 1948 births