SMIDLEY

SAT. Sep 19, 2026

Doors 7PM | Show 8PM

$20 GENERAL

General Onsale begins Friday, June 26, at 10 AM CT.

All Ages (21+ with valid ID to drink)

Instead of letting Smidley devolve into a desperate vanity project or walking away from music entirely, Conor Murphy is immersing himself in his own potential. In the past ten years, Murphy the person and Smidley the band have come to exist beyond the mere creative overflow left unexplored in his work with Foxing. It’s a common and often perfunctory dilemma for an artist coming from a recently defunct ensemble. Through his own growth in and out of Smidley, though, art and life itself have entered into an ongoing cycle of redefinition. This redefinition isn’t a destination, but a new pathway paved by Murphy’s gratitude for and security in the artist, husband, and man that he’s become. Smidley’s third album, Murphy Horse, soundtracks this journey.

The ephemerality of the present, and any confidence in it, is often simultaneously an artist’s greatest fear and motivation. Murphy, fearing the end of his dream, began taking stock of his legacy and life. As Foxing continued to hunch under the emotional ceiling they’d hit, Smidley, which existed tangentially to Foxing, would become more and more of an outlet for Murphy and Foxing bassist Brett Torrence, now on guitar, to continue writing and composing. During this time, Smidley began to transition from a closely sung, predominantly folky project to a more ambitious indie pop and rock ensemble completed by bassist Mitch Renfrew and drummer Jack Middeke.

Murphy Horse begins and largely resides at a crossroads in his life, each song a representation of Murphy’s inner conflict between his personal and professional selves. “I’ve always hoped I could end my career in music with dignity and greet death as an old friend,” says Murphy. “The hardest part of that is trying to actually recognize death when it comes. So rather than pack it in and find an honest job, I decided to put the crossroads on display.”

Murphy’s self-analysis and attempts to reconcile these two sides of himself are repeatedly superseded by the love he has for his wife, a process that becomes the thematic cycle that drives Murphy Horse. The doubt present in the dramatic and sparsely percussive opener “Corpse Flower” melts away by the first hook of the quirky-yet-danceable “Capstone,” which features vocals from Grammy award-winning singer/guitarist Lucy Dacus. As the title suggests, this track is the tentpole of Murphy Horse, and an unabashed love song: “All this loving you has been the capstone of my life.” Murphy elaborates, “These songs summarize a year of confusion and doubt where the only thing I was actually sure of is that I married the love of my life. Those

two ideas were the basis for every song here.” Though doubt remains a recurring obstacle for Murphy, each Smidley song brings him back home to love. Murphy chides himself for being too career-driven and fantasizing about freedom from such earthly woes over a bittersweet melody on the album’s title track, his spiral repeatedly interrupted by his wife yelling “Hey!” as if to snap him out of it. The explosive and vibrant “Love In Every Direction” sees Murphy lamenting this single-mindedness in the face of all he truly has over a composition that feels destined to create a series of massively emotional festival performances.

“Today Was A Wash” and “Friendly’s” romanticize the mundane while “People Like You” reimagines it. Each of these three songs are indie rock performances respectively tinged with shoegaze, tropicalia, and 80’s rock influence before “Robin Egg” marks a sonic return to Smidley’s earlier, indie folk style. Lyrically, “Robin Egg” sees Murphy once again in conflict with a different angle of the same issues of single-mindedness, this time in his desire to be in the moment instead of trying to capture one. Murphy Horse’s core strength on display once more, “Nearer To You,” continues a sort of sonic trilogy that not only returns to that previously folky sound, but elevates it. As Murphy comes out of himself once more realizing that he would choose just a few more moments with the love of his life over an eternity in Heaven, Murphy Horse reaches its final track. “Old Things Never Die” is perhaps the most intimate song on Murphy Horse, a slow ballad that sees Murphy accepting that his life’s definition, his purpose, is just as much in his hands as his suffering.

Smidley has turned a very specific corner with Murphy Horse. There’s no denial of the past and no fear of the future, just the blessing of the present. Never one to shy away from the influence that Foxing has had on his artistry and life, Murphy openly says, “every Smidley album is born out of what didn’t get submitted for Foxing,” further asserting, “the way I write songs… Smidley is either a reaction to Foxing or something I learned from it.” Through the network of artists built by Foxing, Murphy enlisted a number of guest musicians as well as Joe Reinhart (Dr. Dog, Joyce Manor, Beach Bunny) and Ryan Schwabe (BNYX, Algernon Cadwallader, Tobi Lou) for Murphy Horse’s mixing and mastering respectively. Outside of engineering, Smidley also includes a number of other guest musicians for appearances throughout the work, including Nnamdi Ogbonnaya (NNAMDÏ), Adam Schatz (Japanese Breakfast), and Brooks Tipton (Manchester Orchestra)

The reaction to and celebration of his time up to this point, both in and out of past projects and relationships, are what reinforce the emotional foundations of Murphy Horse. The whimsy and drama that were either too much or ill-fitting for Foxing find a home in Smidley. Though not a debut by any means, to Murphy, Murphy Horse certainly feels like one. The confusion and doubt are no longer debilitating because Murphy has the support he spent his whole life seeking. Everything and everyone can be repurposed.

Murphy Horse is available via Royal Mountain Records.