Nicole Knox Murphy has come Full Circle in her life and music career. Interrupted by family life and work, Knox Murphy was out of the music business for several years. Once her kids were grown and out on their own, she went back into the music life. Winning state, regional, and national awards for her music shows that this New Hampshire country and western singer-songwriter made the right choices. She has a lifetime of experience from which to draw her material from. Her debut album Full Circle is a fine document of her abilities and perspective.
Opening her Full Circle album with “Next Time,” Knox Murphy sings in a winsome, assertive stride that forces one to take notice of her voice and words. Yet, that assertive vocal ride cleverly belies that she’s putting off confrontation until “next time,” playing, wittily, with her lack of assertion. Knox Murphy wraps her voice in fine acoustic guitar accompaniment while a backing band keeps a steady, charming warmth around both. The musical colors and tones and her vocal line come together in fine country style, making you feel like you’re having a conversation with a witty next door neighbor.
Knox Murphy’s “backing band” is actually Nashville producer Jerry Webb. Webb plays all the instruments around Knox Murphy’s voice as well as turning the knobs in The Project Room recording studio. She spent a week in Nashville, teaching Webb her songs before they recorded her voice over a drum kit and rhythm guitar. These were six to seven hours a day sessions. The singer-songwriter then had to wait three weeks for Webb to e-mail her the finished product, after she explained how she wanted the songs to sound.
“When I Saw The Clouds Collide” offers brisk country rock guitar as accompaniment to a more belty vocal approach. Knox Murphy gives off plenty of plucky, feisty attitude as she lets her dramatic metaphor unfurl. It’s a testament of her songwriting prowess that this song could probably get air play on rock radio as well as country.
“Grew Up Vermont Strong” finds Knox Murphy singing with joyful attitude and tonal richness. Her voice is loaded with earnest emotion as well as a country singer’s artistic edge. This tom boy tale lands in a good home here amidst pretty, twangy guitar notes. There’s a good match of earthiness in voice and guitar, combining into one heck of a number. Images of a Dobro player, skinned knees, climbing trees, and play fighting with her brothers come to vivid life because Knox Murphy’s voice has that heartfelt expression that makes you believe she truly cares about her subject matter.
Written when she was a 1983 Miss Vermont beauty pageant contestant, “I Just Wanna Be Best Friends,” packs a nostalgic punch, reminding everybody of that special person in your life who made more sense as a friend, at least at the time. Knox Murphy handily manages the balance of emotion that is going on in the song. This shows how she has gained much recognition in country music circles. It’s the story telling that makes country music what it is. A country artist has to not only write good story songs. She must put it across with all of the emotions that are drifting or blowing around. Incidentally, Knox Murphy won Ms. Talent of Vermont and a $4,000 scholarship to Milikin University in Decatur, Illinois.
“Neon Lights“ is another vehicle for Knox Murphy to showcase her ability to express ambivalent emotions. This country singer always loved the neon lights that adorned her image of success. Yet, her cowboy fellow felt that she was turning into a different person in her pursuit of them. Knox Murphy’s voice makes it all sound and feel real as she croons over a very appealing guitar mesh.
Knox Murphy’s title track “Full Circle” documents how she put her music dreams on hold until after her children were grown. As a grown woman it now makes sense to her that she had to live her life the way she did before she got back into music. Her down tempo delivery is loaded with believable emotion, expressed with a richness of voice that not every singer possesses. Sincerity is Knox Murphy’s strong suit here. She makes you feel she’s singing to you and for you.
“Love While You Still Can,” written in remembrance of a Knox Murphy friend, extols the virtues of loving people as much as you can while they’re still here. Her somber yet hopeful vocal tone makes the listener feel what she’s singing about. One can also feel Knox Murphy on a spiritual mission to enlighten people to what she’s learned from her own experience. It’s a gripping song that succeeds on many levels.
“PBR My Friends” is another Knox Murphy wrote in remembrance of an old friend. This honky tonk down tempo piece has a winsome charm in the way the singer-songwriter takes her time emoting and unfurling her message. The electric guitar line tiptoeing its way above the rhythm section is another inviting aspect.
“That’s Not Right” stands tall against a man who has left a woman for another woman. The defiant theme is cleverly expressed in a gentle slow song, peeling off one scene after another as Knox Murphy does a fine job revealing the bittersweet experience of realizing the man wasn’t worth it. She forges the theme and the vocal and guitar accompaniment with the force of her musical personality. And, again, Knox Murphy displays the truly accomplished country music artist’s ability to balance conflicting emotions and ambivalent feelings.
Knox Murphy close out her album with “You Make Leaving Look Easy,” a somber reflection on a man who just doesn’t care about the wreckage he left 
behind. As always, Knox Murphy’s crisp, crystal clear voice sounds beautiful over the sparse accompaniment of acoustic guitars. Her vocal climbs to ever higher levels of her range, in colors, tones, and timbre. She makes it sound easy to sing so commandingly and so earnestly.
Knox Murphy is clearly off to a really big start. While happily married women with grown children don’t usually get signed to major labels and don’t make good copy in gossip columns, this country and western singer-songwriter will find large success in regional circles. Who knows? Maybe one of her songs will make it onto a movie soundtrack and the director will use her band as backdrop in a club scene. There is more than one way to the top, and an artist and her fans never know when luck will land on her lap.
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