Performing with David Byrne and St. Vincent – Photo by Eric Ashleigh
“…their debut, is satisfying as both a commentary on Mr. Haggard’s music and a dispatch from the current jazz frontier.”
– Nate Chinen – NY Times
“The Balto! delivers a Sonny Liston-like, pile driver sonic jab. It stuns.” – C. J. Bond jazmuzic.com
“Exclamationpoint’s playing is spectacular, his use of the thunder tube revelatory”; “Exclamationpoint lets loose with a god-damned genre- and decade-specific capital-F capital-J Free Jazz solo, flexing a specific jazz history muscle all too rarely worked.” – Chris Robinson’s “Outside-Inside-Out”
“a daring punk-jazz ensemble…what you’d imagine dancing to at David Lynch’s wedding reception.” -Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times
“It’s (Beats by Balto!) music that satisfies on multiple levels, being fun and catchy on the surface, but with details and subtleties exposed upon closer examination.” -Jon Davis, Exposé
BIGGEST SURPRISE JAZZ ALBUM OF 2010 – Steve Greenlee – Boston Globe
TOP 10 JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR – Wire Magazine
“In interpreting “Swinging Doors,” “Lonesome Fugitive” and other Haggard classics from a free-jazz perspective, Mr. Murray makes them sound not merely heartbreaking but positively apocalyptic.”
– Will Friedwald – The Wall Street Journal
“…a fusion of music no one envisioned. It’s often hilarious and always terrific.”
– Jeff Simon – Buffalo News
“an odd marriage of the country music’s iconic Bakersfield sound with free jazz… Really. And it works. Go figure.”
– Dan McClenaghan – All About Jazz
“Am I a redneck? Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares? …I can’t help but grin like a big damn idiot.”
– Jordan Richardson – blogcritics.org