Buddy Mondlock – Acclaimed Songwriting, Storytelling, and Folk Music | with our guest, Jack Murray

“Buddy Mondlock writes beautiful songs and plays the kind of guitar they deserve. He’s a fine person and a fine artist.”  Townes Van Zandt

Buddy Mondlock has built a remarkable career around the art of the song. His work has been recorded by artists including Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Janis Ian, Garth Brooks, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary, but there is something especially compelling about hearing Mondlock perform his own songs. With guitar, stories, and an easy way of drawing listeners into his world, he brings decades of songwriting and performing experience to the Godfrey Daniels stage.

Joining the evening as guest is singer/songwriter Jack Murray, whose career has taken him from country rock and rock and roll to Nashville songwriting circles, folk festivals, and Bluebird-style songwriter rounds. Spend an evening with two seasoned songwriters in the intimate setting of Godfrey Daniels, where every song has room to land.

BUDDY MONDLOCK
buddymondlock.com

Buddy Mondlock writes songs. He does it so well that some great songwriters have recorded his songs on their own albums. Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith and Janis Ian, to name just a few. But there’s nothing like hearing the guy who wrote ‘em sing ‘em. He’s not going to pin your ears back with those songs. He’s going to draw you into his world.

It was Guy Clark who first discovered Buddy playing under a tree at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1986. Guy went back to Nashville, opened the door and yelled, “Pay attention y’all, this kid’s good.” Soon after, Buddy was driving a U-Haul south from his native Chicago. A publishing deal with EMI was waiting. In the years that followed, cuts with the likes of Garth Brooks, Joan Baez and David Wilcox cemented his reputation asa songwriter. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded his song, “The Kid” and he sang it with them on their 1996 “Great Performances” PBS television special. 

But Buddy never considered just laying back and writing songs for others. He’s always been a performer first. The joy he takes in singing and playing and telling stories for folks shines through and his audiences take that with them.

And although never one to rush things, he’s accumulated a string of critically acclaimed CDs including 2002’s “Everything Waits To Be Noticed,” a writing and recording collaboration with Maia Sharp and Art Garfunkel. And his latest album, “Filament,” produced by Brad Jones, explores some new territory for him, both sonically and rhythmically.

In recent years Buddy has been writing songs with military veterans through a program sponsored by an organization called Music Therapy of the Rockies and he includes several of those songs in his shows (and one on his new album). “This has been such a powerful experience and I’m honored to have been trusted with these stories of trauma, and of triumph too,” he says.

Turns out he’s also a fine teacher, hosting songwriting workshops across the US and overseas, sharing the wonder of making something out of nothing and helping others to find their own creative sparks. He’s been on staff at the famed Swannanoa Gathering as well as at the songwriting schools at festivals like Kerrville and Sisters.

“Buddy Mondlock writes beautiful songs and plays the kind of guitar they deserve. He’s a fine person and a fine artist.”  Townes Van Zandt

JACK MURRAY
jackmurray.net

Being born in the same town as Dolly Parton (Sevierville, TN) and being kin to Merle Haggard, Jack Murray enjoys the unique challenges of navigating such elevated expectations. Jack was a founding member of the country-rock band Golden Rocket in the late 70s, which featured a unique mix of folk, blues, rock & roll, and traditional country music. That was followed by a hot "Rockpile"-like 4-piece rock and roll band called "The Rockin' Eddies." In the ‘80s, he was lucky enough to have written some songs -for “Alabama” and for other Nashville recording artists. 

Jack has become a popular headlining act as a singer/songwriter at many venues in the Philadelphia area, including the legendary Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, Landhaven in Huffs Church, MusikFest in Bethlehem as well as at the Sellersville Theater where he has opened the show for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Commander Cody Band, Chris Smither, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, and many others. 

He’s been invited to perform In Bluebird-style ‘In The Rounds’ with Nashville songwriting legends Craig Bickhardt, Thom Schuyler, Tony Arata, Don Henry, Michael Johnson and Poco’s Jack Sundrud. He was a featured guest on Gene Shay’s "The Folk Show" on WXPN and again with his band “The Midnight Creeps.” Jack has been a main stage performer at the Spring Gulch Festival and performed in back-to-back years at the prestigious Philadelphia Folk Festival. He’s been invited back again this year to be part of an “In The Round” Songwriter Workshop at the 2024 Philadelphia Folk Festival -swapping songs with Lenny Kaye, Christine Havrilla and Mary Battiata.

After learning that Nashville songwriting legend David Olney had adopted one of Jack’s songs “Bluebonnet Girl” in his final months among us, he found himself on stage at Nashville’s Belcourt Theater in March of 2020, having been invited to play and sing that song in a memorial concert for Mr. Olney after his untimely passing.

When not performing solo, Jack now fronts “The Blue Tarp Wranglers” –a band built to handle all manner of well-rooted American music, including his own. The line-up features charter members guitarist Alan Landes, bassist Nick Franclik, percussionist Josh Kanusky and pedal steel maestro Dave Van Allen. The Tarps often showcase special musical guests as well.

Jack’s 2008 debut CD “Then There’s That...” features his distinctive guitar and vocal stylings and powerful original songs. He recorded ten tracks in Nashville, TN with twice Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Thomm Jutz. After much anticipation, those tracks, now an album titled “BlueTuxedo” will be released after the completion of a Kickstarter campaign to be launched in the fall of 2025.