I Feel Weird Saying This, But...

...That new Hellboy movie looks like it might be a surrealist masterpiece. One can hope.

They Were Bold Before...

...Now they're just being ridiculous. Samantha and I were driving home after a long day of shooting. I pulled the car into the driveway, to see a coyote lounging in my front yard. Not just sitting there, but mocking us. He was dead center in the yard, very comfortable; settled. He might as well have been holding a martini in one paw, and a sign saying "this is my house now" in the other (do they even have paws?).

As my headlights approached him - his reaction? Boredom, mostly. He was certainly not intimidated by us or our big bright vehicle coming his way.

He slowly pulled himself to his feet and ambled towards the house next door. Samantha tried to take his picture but it was pretty dark and he was too far away for her flash to work. So she basically got picture of pitch black...and one glowing eye.

Absolutely chilling. It looks like she sighted a sasquatch or something.

Brick By Brick

Ryan Newman has begun work on the album art and I couldn't be more elated. Did he just get more brain cells than the rest of us?

We returned from our Highway Girl shoot in Vegas earlier this week. Got lots of great footage. While we were there, I wrote the final song for the album on my laptop in my hotel room. I do love technology! When we got home, I just dumped it to my home computer, recorded some vocals and VOILA -- done.

The last two days we've been shooting interviews with some really amazing artists I won't name here (that will be a surprise for when the show launches). Trust me, you like.

More shooting today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and then I'm off to simultaneously edit the show and master my album. Juggling is fun.

Building The House

My new album, "The House We Built," is slowly coming together. In my downtime between the Miley gigs and The Highway Girl tapings, I've been recording new vocals, tweaking mixes, throwing on a little tambourine, and just generally polishing the recordings. Nine songs are now completely finished. I'm writing two more to round the album out, and I plan on getting those two down and having the whole kaboodle ready to send to manufacturing in the next few weeks. Still on track for a summer release.

I've just hired my good buddy Ryan Newman (an unfairly talented visual artist) to do the artwork and packaging. So it's gonna look as good as it sounds.

I'm very excited about this record. It's an extremely honest portrait of what I've gone through in this divorce. The album I had to make at this point in my life. I can't wait for you to hear it. And you will soon.

Now I've gotta go ride some faders.

The Highway Girl

SMtv and The Samantha Murphy Show have now become The Highway Girl. Many wonderful changes in store for our show!


For the next few weeks, Samantha and I will be shooting segments left and right for our new season, goofing off in front of and behind the camera. We have some very exciting, very big artists coming on board.

Many more details to come. New website on its way. Until then, you can read The Highway Girl blog.

And you can still see our seven awesome episodes from South By Southwest (which includes my "it's so hard to tour with Hannah Montana" rant, my "cannonball problem," and my general willingness to alienate myself in front of my music heroes) at smtvmusic.com. You have to sign up to watch, but it's free and it's just so we have an idea of who's watching.

Strangers - Better Than Expected

So I saw The Strangers. And it was good. Very much a throwback to the 70's. In horror terms, that's a wonderful thing.

I don't even know how you could criticize it. It's a movie about people running around a house. That's all it intends to be. Running through the living room, running to the storage shed, running to the bathroom (well, okay, there's wasn't a whole lot of running to the bathroom). And after an elegant fifteen minute setup, every second of it is suspenseful. Can you expect any more than that?

Much of it's brilliance was due to the magnificently creepy sound design/score by tomandandy. There was a gorgeous, creaky cello cue that repeated a few times. I was very excited to find, during the credits, that this fantastic, featured cello part was played by Jessica Catron, who also played on my High Cost of Living album. Go Jessica!

Music Video? Film Shoot? Ummm, Hello?

Some of you have inquired as to why I haven't written about certain film and video shoots as of late. I'm currently waiting to find out how much I'm allowed to talk about. While I want to share the whole shebang with you, I also don't want to endanger my job in any way. Patience please, and perhaps I can bring you that news soon.

Goodbye Garbo

As a result of getting many of his online accounts hacked, The Jonas Brothers' Greg Garbo has permanently shut down his blog. I realize that many of my readers are also his, and I wanted to give him a quick shout-out. Greg, thanks for the amusing anecdotes, behind-the-scenes footage, and silly drawn-on pictures. You will be missed in the blogosphere.