Eamon O’Leary and Jefferson Hamer present traditional and original folk songs with close harmonies and deft instrumental arrangements on bouzouki, guitar, and mandolin. Huffington Post describes their music as “taking what’s best of the classic Irish folk revival without falling into any of its clichés... beautiful, crystalline songs.”

Eamon and Jefferson began playing together at traditional music sessions in New York City. They shared an interest in collecting, arranging, and performing songs from Irish, American, Scottish, and English traditions. As they began to collaborate (first in larger ensembles, but most enduringly as a duo) they also recognized an affinity for other, more contemporary idioms. Whatever the source — songs of the Irish travelers, Arkansas spirituals, or their own compositions — their arrangements feature the same carefully wrought interplay of voices and strings.

In 2012 they recorded their debut album The Murphy Beds — a name that subsequently became shorthand for the duo itself. In 2021 they released their second album, titled Easy Way Down, which The Irish Echo called “an incredible collection of songs delivered with grace and ease.”

In reference to a pair of their original songs, The New Yorker wrote, “with crispy guitar licks and geographic lyrics about a wandering worker... it reminds me of Woody Guthrie’s Columbia River song series,” ... “I want to describe it as an Ian Tyson-esque ballad about a man stranded on an island and then lost at sea, but it feels more like a chain of imagistic verses that take you through a dreamscape.”