Bio
Singing Woody Guthrie songs in the car, Mom playing a spinet in the living room, and Dad building dulcimers in the basement was where the music began for Mindy Murray.
She taught herself some chords on a Silvertone she picked up at a flea market when she was 11 and started writing music and playing standard folk covers. Mindy played the 70s folk scene –coffee houses, bars, festivals and college radio stations– with her band Heartwood.
Two bluegrass-playing doctors interviewed Mindy for medical school in West Virginia, where she spent the next four years cocooned in Appalachia in a blur of music and medicine. Next came three babies and a practice to run, but the music was always playing in the background.
For their 25th anniversary, her husband gave her a Martin and some recording software. Daughter Meg and Mindy started playing music together somewhere along the way forming the band Port Murray. Not long after, Mindy and Meagan hooked up with Kevin McCloskey, a classmate of Meagan’s and Marian Moran, Mindy’s old college roommate. The four became River Drivers – a high-energy rootsy Celtic Americana band that is a force at regional and international folk festivals including the Philly Folk Festival, the NJ Folk Festival, Central PA Festival of the Arts, The Cup of Tae (Donegal, Ireland) and Musikfest among many others. They have also performed at many concert halls including The Bucks County Playhouse, Carnegie Hall WV, and SteelStacks.
You can catch Mindy either playing solo or along with her band, River Drivers, at festivals and concert halls throughout the US and abroad.
Influences and recognition
Mindy draws from her life experiences and oral histories to create edgy rootsy songs — born out of a desire to have her music mean something, while telling the stories of hard working women and men. Many reflect life in Bucks County in the 30’s and 40’s and from the West Virginia coal fields. She sings them with passion and intensity – palpable, like deep grooves in old records or the lines on the faces of the people she sings about. Her songs have received rave reviews from major music journals including fRoots, No Depression and Irish Music Magazine.
One of Mindy’s many labor movement songs “Blair Mountain” was recognized by the United Mine Workers Union and placed in their 2016 Annual Report and her “Did Ya Vote” was recognized by the International Women’s Freedom Song organization in 2020. In 2024, “Children’s March” was picked as a Women’s Freedom Song winner for its lyrics. Her “Sí Se Puede” was awarded First Prize by International Songwriters Day 2025.
AWARDS and Accolades
2025 – International Songwriters Day – First Place winner Lyric/Poetry for “Sí Se Puede”
2024 – International Women’s Freedom Song – Honourable Mention for “Mary Green”
2023 – Winner, Lyric/Poem for “The Children’s March” – Women’s Freedom Song Contest
2023 – Artist in Residence, Folk Music Notebook
2020 – Honorable Mention, “Did You Vote?” – Women’s Freedom Song Contest
Mindy Murray Music 