Michele Murphy publicity photo

Michele’s Sonobeat recordings

Michele’s family instilled in her a love of dance and music. Her mother was a professional tap dancer in Houston, and Michele trained as a child in classical piano and cello, turning to guitar only after moving to Austin in her late teens. It’s not surprising that she picked some dramatic songs for her Sonobeat demo album, including an inspired, languid interpretation of Summertime from Porgy and Bess and original songs to fill out the album, all of which displayed her exceptional guitar and vocal skills. We don’t know why Sonobeat never released Michele’s recordings, but we suspect that Bill circulated demo tapes to his contacts at the major labels, seeking an album deal that never materialized. We also know that Bill eschewed album releases on the Sonobeat label as too costly to manufacture and market for the return on investment, preferring to release only stereo 45 RPM singles and offer his album recordings to national labels.

After recording the demo album and appearing at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Michele took a break from recording but returned to Sonobeat in 1976. In what we believe to be her final Sonobeat session, on April 17, 1976, Michele cut a handful of original songs, including Easy Chair, Finest Man, Give Me a Window, and I’m Glad I Did It But I’m Sorry I Did It to You. Michele’s was the next-to-last set of sessions that Bill conducted (the Sonobeat archives indicate Al & Alec’s sessions in May or June ’76 were the last).

A one-song demo tape submitted to Rod Kennedy, founder of the Kerrville [Texas] Folk Festival

Bill Josey’s note to Rod Kennedy promoting Michele for a spot onstage at the 2nd annual Kerrville Folk Festival

Flip side of Bill’s note to Rod Kennedy

When Bill’s studio lease at the KVET Building on North Lamar in Austin was expiring in mid-1973, Michele suggested that he relocate Sonobeat to Liberty Hill. She pointed out an old stone A.M.E. church on the outskirts of town that was used only two Sundays a month by the small local congregation. Harkening to Michele’s suggestion, Bill outfitted the church, situated on a dozen wooded acres in the Hill CountryThe Texas ”Hill Country” is that portion of Central Texas sitting on the Edwards Plateau and featuring beautiful rolling hills and grasslands. The 31,000 square mile region is considered the geographic border between the American Southeast and Southwest., as Sonobeat’s “Blue Hole Sounds” studio. It also was in Liberty Hill that Michele opened her first full-time music school, in 1975, offering a mixture of piano, guitar, and dance instruction. Notably, Liberty Hill was the site of outlaw country music legend Willie Nelson’s 1975 Fourth of July Picnic and music festival. In that same year, Michele accompanied Arma Harper on vocals for his The Liberty Hill Song, which she included in the Streets of Liberty Hill musical review, based on historical events in and around Liberty Hill, that Michele wrote and directed for the community’s celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986.

Michele’s April 1976 recordings

An additional April 1976 recording

Post-Sonobeat

Michele eventually moved to Austin, where she played Tuesday nights as a solo folk act at the Broken SpokeThe Broken Spoke, on South Lamar, is Austin’s legendary and authentic honky-tonk, whose motto is “Last of the true Texas dancehalls and damn sure proud of it!”. It retains it’s original 1960s decor. For 60 years, the Broken Spoke has hosted almost every major country music star and launched the careers of hundreds of Central Texas country acts. in April 2023, the Texas Historical Commission awarded the Broken Spoke an official Historical Marker, calling the honky-tonk a “cultural treasure”.. Beginning in 1984 and for two decades thereafter she played rhythm guitar and sang backup with Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys, the house band at the Broken Spoke. In 1991, Michele launched the Natural Ear Music camp and school in Austin (Alvin served as one of the school’s instructors), where she pioneered teaching kids as young as four music by ear instead of by sheet music. If Austinite Richard Linklater’s 2003 feature film School of Rock wasn’t inspired by Natural Ear, it should have been.

In 1988 Michele, by then calling herself “Mike” released her self-produced cassette album Blue Hole Boogie (we wonder what inspired that title) and, in 1996, her album Once a Night on CD (it’s still occasionally available on Amazon). In 2007, Mike relocated back to Liberty Hill and in 2011 began a term as its mayor (simultaneously turning over Natural Ear Music to one of its long-time instructors, John Moyer). After wrapping up her mayorship, Mike traveled around a bit and in 2015 relocated to Refugio, a small community on the south Texas Gulf Coast, where today she navigates the back bays in her Carolina Skiff and works on a prose and picture book about her experiences founding and running Natural Ear Music.

Michele Murphy publicity photo