A Sterling Live Set from Elliott Murphy: Review

Rock singer/songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player Elliott Murphy has released more than 50 albums during his long career, and virtually all of them are worth owning. But you have to start somewhere and, if you’re new to his music, you’ll find that Le Havre Live, Murphy’s latest concert album, offers an excellent way to get introduced.

Featuring an April 2026 show in France, where this native New Yorker has lived since 1989, the record does a great job of showcasing his commanding vocals and literate verse about a wide range of subjects. Supporting Murphy, who plays rhythm guitar and harmonica, are three longtime accompanists: ace lead guitarist Olivier Durand, violinist Melissa Cox and percussionist Alan Fatras, all of whom add backing vocals. Also on hand is bassist Aurelien Barbolosi, a relative newcomer to the group.

Related: Murphy is one of our “10 Underappreciated Music Acts You Need to Hear”

The hour-long, 12-track soundboard recording (with no overdubs) taps standouts from throughout Murphy’s career. “Last of the Rock Stars,” which also served as the lead-off track on his 1974 debut album, Aquashow, opens the concert, which features several other oldies. Those include the title cut from 1977’s Just a Story from America and “Visions of the Night,” “Deco Dance” and “You Never Know What You’re in For” from 1975’s Lost Generation and Night Lights. Also on the program are numbers such as “On Elvis Presley’s Birthday,” from 1993’s Unreal City, “Green River,” from 2003’s Strings of the Storm, “Not Enough Time,” from 2005’s Coming Home Again, and “The Miracle Zone,” which first showed up on a 2025 EP called The Tree of Life.

Murphy has previously released other live versions of most of these songs, but like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, he has a penchant for reinventing his own work. (In 2015, for example, he released an album called Aquashow Deconstructed that includes reimagined versions of every tune on his debut LP.) “Just a Story from America,” a bouncy, pop-flavored rocker in its original version, shows up here as a leisurely delivered, nearly a cappella folk ballad. “Last of the Rock Stars,” which also rocked hard in its first rendition, is similarly slowed down and moody.

Murphy hits the gas pedal several times on this album, however. “Green River,” one of his best rockers, garners a nearly six-minute, high-octane reading, for instance, and befitting its title, the fiddle-spiced “Deco Dance” is danceable.

The July 2026 release is available digitally in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here. Much of his catalog is available here.