The following is an article out of the Marion Living Magazine in May 2007.
Marion’s Tom Murphy works at his shop, turning something new into something old each day. Murphy uses his talent to sculpt years of use and wear on the finish of brand new Gibson guitars, etching each crackle, blemish and dent into the instrument’s surface by hand. The transformation is unique, yet uniform. The results are astonishing; with craftsmanship exacting to details and standards which every artist understands, appreciates and demands.
Murphy and his wife, Janice (“Peter”, Tom explains is how everyone knows her) have two children, Catelin a student at St. Louis University, and Conor, who is in the eighth grade.
Tom Murphy’s story perhaps best epitomizes the Marion Living mission of “Showcasing the People and Lifestyle of Marion.” The “Guitar Man” who through his talent and connections could quite literally live anywhere other than Marion. Quite the contrary, Murphy chooses to live in Marion and relishes the fact that he can live here doing the work he loves, staying connected, and meeting his quota simply by working through FedEx and the UPS.
Murphy attended the two room schoolhouse in Spillertown and completed high school in Marion. Through his childhood he realized that something called to him. Not necessarily baseball, which certainly held his interest, more to the point, music seemed apparent in his life, particularly, the guitar.
Murphy said that he recalled staring at the Sears and Montgomery Ward’s catalogs as a kid, deciding on the Harmony and Silver-Tone instruments which appealed to him most. Remembering that around the age 12 he got his first guitar, a Kay guitar, which was purchased with Green Stamps (a similar model proudly hangs in the corner of the shop today). “I can remember heading to the movies on the weekends with some buddies and stopping by Boatright’s on the Square so that we could look at the guitars on display. Some of those guitars cost as much as $59, but I knew one day, I’d get me one.”
When he was growing up before he was a teenager in Marion, the British Invasion was in full swing. Murphy said that he can remember seeing all three Ed Sullivan programs which featured the Beatles, and further realized that the influence left on the young man by the Fab-Four was enough to fill in all of the pieces.
After graduating from Marion High School, Murphy was enrolled in one of the first classes at John A. Logan College which was located in a few buildings in Herrin at the time. In 1969, still at a very early age, like so many kids, Tom packed his guitar, a few belongings and set his sights out on the road. Friends of his had located in Houston and he decided that he should set out to follow his musical desire. Three days before Christmas, with his parents waving good-bye in amazement, Tom boarded a Trailways Bus, and left Marion eager to learn and be a part of more.
“With Marion so isolated in middle-America at the time, I needed more stimulation.” Murphy explained. “I was always proud of Marion, and to be from Marion… We were the County Seat, and we had the cool Square,” he continued “I always grew up thinking that I was pretty lucky to have been from Marion, as opposed to some of the other communities around the area.”
For the next several years of Murphy’s life, he remained working at clubs and at gigs playing guitar for various bands and acts which kept food on the table and a roof over head. Houston offered his first experiences with major named players and those up-and-coming performers who continued to gain attention. All the while, he kept playing and practicing and honing his playing skills. During these early years, Tom toyed around with removing varnishes to expose wood from a few guitars, but never thought of himself as a technician or repairman… only as a guitar player. He recalls tinkering with screws and moving bridges and pick-ups forward or back, but not for any reason other than to find out the results of such tinkering.
“My time in Houston was an important time for growing, but, again, I was needing more.” His next move was Austin, where he said, “Austin was one of the first places which I saw a hippy and a cowboy standing next to each other in a bar… and everything was alright.” With the great influence of the Austin music scene, Tom continued to hone his guitar talent, and found himself in Colorado, where his life would change forever.
It was in Colorado where Tom met Janice. And even though a picker could have played and played locally, a relationship with her and the possibility of a family was now becoming the influence in the guitarist’s life. Tom was beginning to realize that music was important, perhaps the only thing which was important regarding a career. And he realized that playing was what he knew, there was still no keen interest or desire to work on guitars for a living. Other people worked on guitars. He played them.
In 1983, when Tom was 33 years old, the family moved from Colorado to Nashville. After a year or so in Nashville Tom and Janice were married. With many aspiring guitarists strumming their way through music-city, Tom’s years of playing and practice paid off for him. After Sawyer Brown had won Star Search and was beginning to tour the US, Tom landed the guitarist’s spot. He flew to New York to audition and came away from the Big Apple with a national touring spot.
Murphy stayed on the road with Sawyer Brown for a year or two. He actually had the opportunity to return to Marion and play at the Orpheum Theater, where Tom had watched movies as a youngster. “When we pulled off the expressway on the bus,” he said, “they had established signs which read; Tom Murphy and Sawyer Brown.” Smiling, he said, “That was pretty cool.”
After his time with Sawyer Brown, Tom found himself next playing the guitar on the set of the Marie Osmond Show where he continued to perfect his guitar talent. Then, as with the nature of television, changes occurred within the production direction of the Osmond Show, which left Tom basically out of work.
In the spring of 1989 in Nashville, while playing a gig with some friends, Tom was offered a job in the rough-mill at Gibson Guitar by one of the people at the party. As it turns out, a second friend saw Tom while he was at the factory and pointed him in the direction of a department which needed someone to fix scratches and nicks, getting guitars back out on the line and in accordance with the strict quality control standards.
Tom was lucky enough to have been placed next to a woman who had done this sort of repair and finish detail work at the factory for 15 or 20 years, and he proved to be a quick study. It was sometime around that time frame when he realized that he could still find the time to play the guitar but he would no longer have to travel the road. “This was really cool!” Tom said, “I was working at Gibson… Mecca… perhaps the pinnacle of American guitars.” He found a job that he really loved doing and one which seemed to fill that void of stimulation that he had been seeking when he left Marion so many years before. It was obvious that his work at Gibson was a great fit for the company and the guitarist turned technician, too.
Tom’s passion was driven by the ability to play, fed by his eager need to learn. He wanted to know why things were different than with the earlier models. More so, he wanted to explore the possibility of reintroducing the early guitars with those early manufacturing standards. He wanted to bring back the much sought after 1959 Les Paul, new and shiny, sure… but manufactured just like one of the early jewels. Through his research and diligence, Tom was awarded the project, and took it on with pride. “I wanted to make stuff that I liked… cool stuff that I knew that any guitar player would appreciate.” So, Gibson re-introduced the 1959 “Sunburst” and later the “Gold-Top” Les Paul electric guitars.
While working on mimicking the re-issue guitar, Tom continued to touch up and repair guitars and learn techniques which helped to eliminate scratches, accidental dings and scuffs. Making something look new was still the name of the game. While attending a trade show Tom was asked if the process could be reversed. Somewhat astonished, Murphy conceded that it may be possible, but that to take a re-issue 1959 Les Paul, something which was not exactly an inexpensive instrument, and purposefully rough it up as if it were an actual vintage guitar was quite the proposition. It was a proposition which Tom accepted, knowing that the results could make his guitars, one-of-a-kind. The project of reintroducing the 1959 Les Paul became more of a success and everyone seemed to want to own one of Tom’s special guitars. And that was cool, too… For a while.
When his time at Gibson came to an end… Don McLean couldn’t have summed it up better… “It was the day the music died.” In 1994, Tom and Gibson parted company and shortly thereafter, while visiting back here in Marion around the holidays, Tom’s sister-in-law showed a house to Janice, and yet another verse was written. Only this time, it may have been closer to David Gate’s, “Guitar Man.” — “Who draws the crowd and plays so loud, it’s the guitar man… Who’s gonna steal the show, you know Baby it’s the guitar man.”
Soon after the Murphy’s returned to Marion, Tom began setting up business in his dad’s old woodworking shop. Now, more than 4,000 guitars later, Tom Murphy and instruments which have
been aged by Murphy are highly praised and cherished by collectors and players alike. His work continues here at his shop in Marion, and by all accounts he will continue to produce some of the most amazing guitar finishes that may even leave the “Antique’s Road Show” appraisers asking for a second opinion.
Sam’s Notes: Tom Murphy was a graduate of Marion High School class of 1968.
(Article extracted from Marion Living Magazine, May 2007)