Nashville, TN – peermusic Nashville has signed artist and songwriter David Lee Murphy to a multi-faceted, exclusive global publishing agreement, as announced today by Kathy Spanberger, President & Chief Operating Officer, peermusic and Michel Knox, President, peermusic Nashville. Through the deal, peermusic will administer David Lee Murphy’s song catalog as well as co publish future works. The deal marks Murphy’s first ever exclusive co-publishing deal – prior to this, Murphy was self-published his entire career together with his long-time personal manager, Doug Casmus.
David Lee Murphy is well known for his #1 country hits as a recording artist “Dust on the Bottle” and “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”, as well as the hit songs “Party Crowd”, “Out with a Bang”, “Every Time I Get Around You”, “The Road You Leave Behind”, and “Loco”. Also known as one of Country music’s best songwriters, Murphy has earned over two dozen songwriting awards for songs he has written for superstars Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Thompson Square, Justin Moore, Walker Hayes, Wynonna, Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Thomas Rhett, Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Hank Williams, Jr., Sheryl Crow, Johnny Cash, and many others.
His cuts include the #1 single “Living in Fast Forward” for Kenny Chesney; the #1 Hot Country Songs single “Big Green Tractor” for Jason Aldean (produced by peermusic’s Michael Knox); the #1 Country Airplay song “Anywhere With You” for Jake Owen; and the multiple GRAMMY nominated, #1 Hot Country Song “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not” for Thompson Square, to name a few. Murphy’s # 1 single and duet with Kenny Chesney, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” earned Murphy his first CMA Award for “Musical Event of the Year.” Some of his other hits include songs by Kenny Chesney (“Here And Now”, “Live A Little”, “Pirate Flag”, “’Til It’s Gone”); Jason Aldean (“The Only Way I Know”); Kip Moore (“Last Shot”); Justin Moore (“Why We Drink”); Gary Allan (“A Feelin’ Like That”); Josh Thompson (“Way Out Here”) and Blackberry Smoke (“Good One Coming On”).
In October 2023, David Lee Murphy was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Keith Urban, Kix Brooks, Casey Beathard and Rafe Van Hoy. Murphy was inducted in the Contemporary Songwriter category.
Michael Knox commented: “David Lee Murphy is my favorite singer/songwriter in town. For me, personally, this is a very exciting moment. ‘Dust On A Bottle’ creatively set the mark that I would chase for my entire career. As a producer that is the song that I tell everyone I am looking for. David Lee Murphy is the truest form of a singer/songwriter, and that’s why his first publishing deal needed to be with peermusic, the company that brought you ‘The Father of Country Music’ and ‘The First Family of Country Music.’ This is just a great combination…peermusic and ‘The Coolest Guy in Country Music.’”
David Lee Murphy commented: “I love Michael Knox. We’ve worked together on different things for many years. I’ve always appreciated his knack for songs and making music. Knowing the creative environment at peermusic, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to join forces for us all going forward. Doug Casmus and I have managed to operate all these years having fun, just making music. We’re gonna keep doing that, we’re just gonna have a bigger team now and more people to have fun with.”
Doug Casmus commented: “David Lee and I have had such a profoundly, unique history together and I look forward to our new chapter with peermusic.”
Murphy developed his musical style as a teenager in Southern Illinois. He studied the sounds of such “outlaw” country musicians as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. He was also deeply influenced by southern rock bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers and ZZ Top. Pursuing a career in music, Murphy moved to Nashville and spent years honing his craft as a songwriter.
Several rough demos of Murphy’s compositions, including the song “Party Crowd” caught the attention of MCA Records who signed Murphy as an artist. Murphy’s debut platinum selling album for the label, Out With A Bang, produced a string of hits including the title track “Out With A Bang”, “Fish Ain’t Bitin’” and “Just Once”, which was featured in the movie 8 Seconds about bull rider Lane Frost. Also on that album were the hit singles “Party Crowd” (Radio & Records awarded it most played song on Country radio in 1995) and the #1 single “Dust On The Bottle”. Both songs are staples at Country radio.
Murphy’s follow-up album Gettin’ Out The Good Stuff spawned the hit singles “Every Time I Get Around You”, “The Road You Leave Behind”, “Breakfast In Birmingham” and the cult classic “Genuine Rednecks”. Murphy went onto record two more albums. We Can’t All Be Angels produced the hit single, “All Lit Up In Love” and “We Can’t All Be Angels” that was featured in the Patrick Swayze movie Blackdog. Murphy’s album Tryin’ To Get There (the title track he wrote with friend and musical hero Waylon Jennings) produced the Top 5 single “Loco”.
Murphy was content writing songs and touring. He had no plans to record another album. But country music superstar Kenny Chesney convinced him otherwise. The album titled No Zip Code, contains 11 songs written by Murphy with some of Nashville’s finest songwriters. It yielded the # 1 single and duet with Chesney, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” and earned Murphy his first CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year.
David Lee Murphy was represented by Linda Edell Howard, Esq. of Edell Howard Enterprises LLC in Nashville. peermusic was represented by Director of Legal and Business Affairs, Dodi Hecht and Chief Counsel, Tim Cohan.
Official site: https://www.davidlee.com
David Lee Murphy Social Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidleemurphy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidleemurphy
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/david-lee-murphy/181651
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1OLBGaxJLHTe47zxU0hGp3
X: https://twitter.com/davidleemurphy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vlB7avwlpolmVKzjEoOyg/videos