Ep. 184: John Walker & Putnam Murdoch

Southcoast Artists Index

Welcome, to Podcast Episode 184 featuring John Walker and Putnam Murdock. They are friends and a singer-songwriter team who also work together as playwrights. John has, as he describes, "some experience writing screenplays" and Putnam is a seasoned singer-songwriter and teacher.

Putnam Grafton Murdock has performed throughout the US and is a middle school music and theatre teacher at Friends Academy in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. They have completed one stage play “A Friend’s One Man Show” and are working on another play incorporating Putnam’s music background. The play, however, is not a traditional musical.

As of this podcast episode recording, “A Friend’s One Man Show” has been through one table reading at Friends Academy in 2021 and a staged reading at Moses Brown High School in Providence, Rhode Island in 2023. Their creative process has evolved since they began writing together in the fall of 2019 before the pandemic. When the pandemic started, they discovered they could meet more often online.

John Daniel Walker is a California State University, Northridge graduate and a transplanted Fairhavenite from San Diego, California. According to John, "While the platform was a bit impersonal at first, we took the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to the creative process which, supplemented our therapy sessions that were no longer taking place." The process has allowed them to take time, revise, and edit often. it also allowed the duo to include their most honest selves in the characters.

According to the friends and playwrights, while publication is a dream for the play, their goal has been to create and steep themselves in the process of writing. As a touring artist, Putnam started as a professional musician with the Colorado rock and roll band Chief Broom. He was the frontman. The group achieved a slot on the 1997 H.O.R.D.E tour, appeared in festivals at Red Rocks Amphitheater and sold out venues throughout the western United States.

After graduating with a songwriting degree from Berklee School in Music in 2002, Murdock launched a solo career and has since traveled across the country performing with artists such as Martin Sexton, Taj Mahal, Ben Taylor, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Kaki King. Putnam Murdock describes his music as being steeped in old-time folk, country, and blues.his songwriting presents an honest voice of Americana music. As a one-man band or a full ensemble, the intimacy remains obvious in his contemporary sonic collages or classic ballads. His fourth studio release, "Long Time To Make Old Friends, was recorded at Bunker Studios in 2022.

John Walker and Putnam Murdock speak with The Artists Index’s cofounder, documentarian, and podcast host, Ron Fortier, about their collaboration and interests.. This episode was recorded with Zoom. The Artists Index uses Zoom to accommodate our guests’ schedules and to allow them to remain in the comfort of their homes, especially those who no longer live on the South Coast of Massachusetts.

Our home base and recording studio is located in Spectrum Marketing Group in Howland Place in New Bedford. If you would like to be a guest on The Artists Index or have a suggestion, please let us know!

The In-Focus Podcasts are up close and personal conversations with the makers, performers, supporters, and cultural impresarios of the remarkable creative community of South Coast Massachusetts including New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Westport, and beyond.