Pulling the Strings

Violinist Jessica Murphy is electric on Northwest Florida stages

At just 8 years old, Jessica Murphy saw something on television that would ignite a lifelong passion. 

“There was a child on TV, I want to say Oprah, who performed violin for the audience,” Murphy recalls. “I remember wanting to be them, looking over toward my mother and saying, ‘Mom, I want to do that.’”

Murphy didn’t think her mother took her seriously, but she was signed up for violin lessons the very next day.

Today, 28 years later, she’s evolved from a young girl growing up in Michigan with a dream to a successful musician living and working along the idyllic Emerald Coast. Murphy has toured the states with her fiddle and finds joy in routinely performing alongside popular musicians from the area.

Music, she says, has always been a family affair. 

“My mother plays all sorts of instruments, and my younger brother is a violinist in a local band here in Florida,” she says. “When we all get together, we inevitably assemble the family band for a performance.”

Her professional career began in 2009 when she moved south and began taking on students and playing for beach weddings. It was at one of these ceremonies she met vocalist Anthony O’Shae and discovered their musical chemistry, sparking a collaboration that would lead to the formation of the band Continuum, in which Murphy utilized an electronic violin to help define their genre-bending indie, retro, electropop, and soul sound combination. 

Starting out playing gigs along the Panhandle, the group quickly gained local fame, specializing in twisting cover songs to suit their unique style, and eventually going on to record an original EP, Cover Up.  

“We started touring a couple years in, where we did a lot of performances in South Florida but also made our way through Texas, Colorado, and Portland,” Murphy says. “It was amazing. A future goal of mine is definitely to be in a band and go on tour again.”

Continuum ended up relocating to the stages of Nashville, Tennessee and rebranded as I’MAGENE. However, the group disbanded around the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

Murphy found herself back in Florida, where she rededicated her art to local collaborations. Today, she is a regular at popular locales such as McGuire’s Irish Pub of Destin, where she plays Irish music as one half of a duo with native Irish guitarist Neve Cunnane.

“I also play a lot with Jessie Ritter, a country artist who mostly plays in Pensacola,” Murphy says. “When Reed Waddle—who is based out of Atlanta—comes to town, I like to perform with him. He has more of a folk sound. And Neve reminds me of Sheryl Crow with a pop-country vibe. … She plays a lot of Taylor Swift! I like playing all different genres, but I do find myself playing a lot more country in this area.”

Murphy says she was surprised by how much country music has snuck into her life, citing artists among her top Spotify Wrapped like Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves. However, she aspires to get back into electric violin. With a future band, she sees herself exploring more of a folk-pop genre. 

“I’d rather be collaborating than a soloist,” she says. “I do feel I still am trying to find my music identity—what I really want to perform and who the people are I want to do that with.”

In April 2024, Murphy hosted a 10-year reunion house concert with Continuum at her Fort Walton Beach home compound. The event sold out, and for Murphy, it was like “stepping back in time.”

“It was amazing not only seeing the band, but all the people who used to come to every single one of our shows to support us,” she says. 

The night brought closure for a band collectively saddened by their split.

When we came together again, it was like we were all in the right place in our lives right then,” Murphy continues. “Some of us are still in music, some of us are doing other things, but then, it felt right and was a nice moment to have.”

For Murphy, performing grants her the ability to pass parts of herself to others via music.

“It grants a feeling of connection,” she says. “You realize there’s this reality that you think you’re doing something that feels so natural to you and is a part of you, but then people come up to you and say how your music has impacted them and the feelings it’s created for them. Being able to share those feelings with others is most rewarding.”

You can enjoy snippets of violinist Jessica Murphy’s performances and approach her for musical inquiries ather Instagram, @hijessmurphy.