We Speak Music
Murray & The Movers get ‘Squeaky Clean’ with new rockabilly jam
Murray & The Movers follow up the release of their late-night blues-rock cut ‘Dirty Laundry’ with ‘Squeaky Clean’, a frisky, electrified reworking that pushes the song into sharp-edged rockabilly territory.
‘Squeaky Clean’ is the sunny-side-up flip of ‘Dirty Laundry’ — swapping late-night smoke and tension for bright rockabilly swagger, clean cowboy boots and good-time rhythm. Built around crisp stick sounds, woody percussion, twanging guitars and scooting grooves, the track rolls through Americana country-blues territory with a grin on its face. If ‘Dirty Laundry’ was after dark, ‘Squeaky Clean’ is the sound of throwing open the blinds and skipping down the street in freshly polished cowboy boots.
Fronted by Lizzie Mack, whose voice moves between raw intimacy and controlled power, and anchored by Murray Cook’s instinctive guitar work, the two tracks reveal both sides of Murray & The Movers: one slow-burning and shadowed, the other sharper, louder and built for speed.
Drawing on blues, country, garage rock and classic soul, the band’s sound is never revivalist. Instead, it lives in a distinctly cinematic space — music with dust on its boots, neon in its reflection, and a sense of backstory running through every musical choice. With the high-energy release of ‘Squeaky Clean’ juxtaposing the restrained, cinematic, tension-building moods of ‘Dirty Laundry’, Murray & The Movers showcase their great versatility across the same song.
Following the release, Lizzie Mack and Murray Cook will head to Spain in summer 2026 for a run of intimate duo shows, bringing their raw chemistry and stripped-back sound to a series of close, atmospheric rooms from Madrid to Barcelona. For tickets and information on the shows, visit- https://www.murrayandthemovers.com/
We Speak Music
SCARECROW’s John Blaze Delivers a Career Milestone With “Twisted” and Earns Josie Music Awards Song of the Year Nomination
John Blaze has spent nearly four decades fronting SCARECROW, the New York hard-rock outfit he founded in 1989, and in 2026 he delivered one of the most ambitious releases of his career with “Twisted.” Now, the song has reached another major milestone: “Twisted” has been nominated for Song of the Year in the Metal/Alternative category at the Josie Music Awards.
The nomination places Blaze and SCARECROW among this year’s recognized independent artists and songwriters at the Josie Music Awards, with the awards ceremony set to take place at Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry. For an artist whose career has been built on persistence, independence and decades of hard-rock storytelling, the recognition gives “Twisted” an entirely new chapter.
Written by John Blaze and Chaffin, “Twisted” pulls together a lineup of guest players that reads like a rock family reunion, built around Blaze’s long-standing friendship with Dee Snider and the legacy of Twisted Sister, a band woven into SCARECROW’s story from its earliest days.
That connection goes all the way back to the beginning. SCARECROW’s original lineup featured guitarist Eddie Ojeda, best known for his work in Twisted Sister, and the two camps have remained connected ever since. “Twisted” makes that history explicit: Dee Snider appears on the record with guest vocals during the track’s climactic second verse and chorus, lending the song an instantly recognizable jolt of arena-rock power.
Snider isn’t the only marquee name in the credits. Mark Wood, founding violinist of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, contributes electrifying violin work that gives “Twisted” a cinematic sweep uncommon in modern hard rock. Rounding out the track are TJ Jordan on lead guitar and Bobby Marks on drums, creating a powerful, road-tested foundation behind Blaze’s signature gritty vocal delivery.
The Josie Music Awards nomination feels particularly fitting because “Twisted” isn’t simply another SCARECROW release. It brings together different eras of Blaze’s musical life while pushing the band’s sound forward. There’s history in the recording, but there’s also urgency. It doesn’t sound like a band looking backward. It sounds like one with unfinished business.
For Blaze, the nomination also represents recognition of a career that has largely been built outside the traditional machinery of the mainstream music business. Independent rock artists rarely survive for decades without a fierce commitment to what they do, and SCARECROW’s longevity speaks for itself. From the band’s early years and its 1991 debut, through the Blood, Sweat and 20 Years retrospective and the theatrical production I Am SCARECROW, Blaze has continued developing a world around the music rather than simply releasing songs.
That makes the Song of the Year nomination especially meaningful. After nearly four decades of building SCARECROW, Blaze now heads to the Josie Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry with one of his most ambitious songs recognized in the Metal/Alternative category.
And there’s something wonderfully appropriate about the song that got him there.
“Twisted” connects SCARECROW’s beginnings to its present, reunites Blaze musically with figures tied to the band’s history, and demonstrates just how much fire remains in the project. With Snider and Wood contributing to the record and Blaze still driving the band he created from the ground up, the track feels less like a nostalgic reunion than a statement of survival.
Now it’s also an award-nominated song.
For John Blaze and SCARECROW, nearly four decades into the journey, “Twisted” has become more than another entry in the catalog. It’s a career milestone — and this September, that milestone is taking SCARECROW all the way to the Grand Ole Opry.
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