Larry Murante

Awards * 2012 West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest, Singer-Songwriter Category Honorable Mention * 2012 Grassy Hill Kerrville Newfolk Competition Finalist * 2011 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest Premier 6th Place Winner * 2011 Folk Alliance Regional West Conference (Far-West) Premier Showcase Artist * 2011 West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest Winner, Singer-Songwriter category * 2011 International Acoustic Music Awards (IAMA) - Finalist * 2010 Premier Showcase Artist - Far-West Folk Alliance Regional West Conference • 2010 New Zealand Songwriting Competition/Peace Song - Top Ten Finalist • 2010 Rose Garden Coffeehouse Song Contest - Winner * 2010 North American Folk Alliance Conference Official Performance Alley Showcase Artist • 2009 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner • 2009 Great American Song Contest Finalist • 2009 Grassy Hill Kerrville Newfolk Competition Finalist • 2009 Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Competition Finalist • 2009 Unisong International Songwriting Competition Honorable Mention • 2009 Peacedriven.com Songwriting Contest Finalist • 2008 Peacedriven.com Songwriting Contest Finalist • 2002 Tumbleweed Festival Songwriting Contest/Richland, WA Winner • 2002 Billboard Song Contest Honorable Mention • 2000 Samie Awards (Seattle Area Musical Innovation and excellence awards) Nominated: Best Male vocalist, Album of the year, Best performing Songwriter album • 1999 Wildflower Songwriting Contest/ Richardson, Texas Winner • 1999 Falcon Ridge Festival/ Hillsdale, NY Showcase Finalist • 1999 Tumbleweed Festival Songwriting Contest/Richland, WA 2nd Place Winner • 1998 Tumbleweed Festival Songwriting Contest/Richland, WA Winner • 1998 Lakefolkfest Songwriting Contest/ Lakewood, WA Top Five Winner • 1998 Unisong International Song Contest Finalist • 1991 Puget Sound Songwriting Contest/ Seattle, WA Winner. Larry released his third CD, Point OF Entry in 2009. His first two CD releases, Kiss Me One More Time (1994) and Water’s Edge (2000) have garnered critical acclaim from all over the country and parts of Europe. His beautifully woven stories about every day folks, set to song, combine compassionate, socially conscious lyrics and a joyful, energetic folk/rock style. Jackson Brown, Lyle Lovett, Hal Ketchum and Michael McDonald are all reflected in his music. Larry is known for his soaring, mellifluous, tenor, a strong rhythmic guitar style and an engaging stage presence. Larry Murante tours nationally, performing at folk concerts, festivals, radio interviews and house concerts. Larry grew up in the small rural town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania (also the home of Martin Guitars). In high school, Larry began singing in working bands of every kind. “In my late teens I was singing in a wedding band that performed a variety of styles including jazz, pop, swing, R&B and top-40,” he recalls. “In those early years I was also singing in rock cover bands and playing in top 40 groups in town on the weekends. And when I wasn’t doing that, I was listening to and playing acoustic folkrock music. My biggest influence from that period (and even today) were the early 70’s singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, CSNY, the Eagles and Jackson Browne.” Larry’s voice today is a testament not only to good pipes but to years of training — which he’s done, logging over a decade of study with opera, jazz, and musical theater stylists among which was Metropolitan Opera veteran baritone, Frank Guarerra (Larry continues to lead a double life as a jazz/rock/R&B singer in his ten piece variety band, Second Wind, which has been together for over 15 years). His songs are full of the sense of how lucky and fragile our lives are (most of us): to have music, companionship, family, a roof overhead, a semblance of mental health, food on the table and the opportunity to grow — these are gifts that in Larry’s songs seem tenuous, revokable, and tender. Though his songs are cleanly structured, he rarely writes himself into a tight formal box, and you can feel his narrator’s eye moving across the landscape like a great, kindhearted novelist who stops to probe gently into each of his characters and their desires (sometimes his own) before moving on to the next scene. Larry tours nationally, performing a mix of folk concerts, festivals, radio interviews and house concerts and has shared the stage with such artists as Peter Mulvey, Greg Greenway, Pierce Pettis, David Broza, Cosy Sheridan, Laura Love, Christine Lavin, TR Ritchie, Joanne Rand, Jane Gillman, Darcie Deaville, Jim Page, Orville Johnson, Lisa Koch, David Maloney, Annie Gallup, Johnathan Kingham, Caren Armstrong and I once shared an elevator with Pete Seeger. He looked right at me and said, “Hi.”