Song #024: Matt Murphy (as Guy Terrifico) - Worth a Song (off The Life & Hard Times of Guy Terrifico OST - 2005)
Last night, Adam and I went to go see Matt Murphy and Ben Gunning play a double-bill at the Drake. There weren’t many people in the audience, but I rather enjoyed that. Matt Murphy played first, and one of the first songs in the set was Worth a Song, which he wrote for the AMAZING Guy Terrifico soundtrack.
For those of you unfamiliar with the piece of brilliant Canadian cinema, The Life & Hard Times of Guy Terrifico is a fake documentary showing the rise and fall of a mysterious Canadian honky-tonk legend, Guy Terrifico (played expertly by Murphy). Sure, the film is great and you should see it (I think Natalia still has my copy), but Bring It Back Home (the soundtrack) was one of my top albums of the last decade.
Murphy, of course, sings most of the songs, but he also has guests like Kris Kristofferson and Donnie Fritts join him for certain tracks. It’s a brilliant album that goes perfectly with the film, and one of the most heartbreaking songs is Worth a Song, his brilliant, melancholy breakup ode. It’s perfect for Murphy’s voice, because it has the natural waiver you can’t hear so much in his work with The Super Friendz and Flashing Lights (Flashing Lights!) that really sell the raw heartbreak of the song.
