Jay Munly

Solo career

Munly started out his music career in the 1990s. He had toured with The Reejers before releasing his first album. He also shared a 7-inch vinyl album with Roger Manning, though the song featured on the record is unknown.

He has worked with several musicians that are featured on his albums, such as John Ellison of The Reejers and Chris Mars of The Replacements. and released his debut solo album, Blurry, in 1996 through Top Notch, an imprint of W.A.R. Munly de Dar He and Galvanized Yankee were also released through Top Notch in 1997 and 1999, respectively. His fourth and final solo album, Jimmy Carter Syndrome, was released through Smooch Records in 2002. an imprint of W.A.R., on February 6, 1996. It is the only album of his which incorporates elements of pop music rather than the sounds and lyrics of gothic country that he is mainly known for.

The album was originally titled "Blurry Polaroids", but Munly was forced to shorten the name by the Polaroid Corporation. Munly provided vocals and guitar It was given a limited-edition re-release, with new cover art and an updated track listing, through Smooch Records on June 27, 2006.

Little is known about how the album was received by critics. However, there were apparently a few songs that reached popularity in Perth, Australia.

Munly de Dar He

Munly de Dar He (or de Dar He) is his second studio album, released on November 15, 1997. It was distributed through Top Notch Records, an imprint of W.A.R. Musically, this album features a more robust instrumental backing than his previous effort, Blurry. A variety of instruments are used: strings such as the banjo, cello, and violin, horns such as the tuba and trumpet, as well as others, such as the accordion and various forms of percussion.

Munly collaborated with musicians Nick Urata (of later DeVotchKa fame), Matthew Brown, Michael Crow, Tom Echols, and Channing Lewis to form the 'de Dar He' band. However, the exact contributions of each member are unknown. The album was recorded "in an abandoned semi-trailer" in Denver, Colorado.

The album was re-mastered by Bob Ferbrache at Absinthe Studios in Denver. Only 1,000 copies were printed due to "licensing restrictions."

Galvanized Yankee

Galvanized Yankee is Munly's third studio album, released on January 5, 1999. It was distributed by Top Notch Records, an imprint of W.A.R. This is the first album that leans into the gothic country genre that he is known for. Reviewer Jeremy Salmon of AllMusic looks at the album as a "compendium of tales" – a concept album loosely held together by the theme of war. In fact, the album title "Galvanized Yankee" is a historical term that dates to the American Civil War era. (Munly, with his father, shared an interest in this period of American history, which may have heavily influenced this album.)

The album was recorded in New York, between 1998 and 1999, while Munly was attending Columbia University. The guitar, mandolin, and fiddle are the most prominent instruments on the album.

Jimmy Carter Syndrome

Jimmy Carter Syndrome is Munly's fourth and final solo studio album, released in 2002. This was the first album to be distributed through Smooch Records.

He asserts that prizefighter Gerry Cooney was his babysitter as a child. The song "Cooney vs. Munly" on Jimmy Carter Syndrome (2002) was written as a tribute to him.

Bands Slim Cessna's Auto Club Munly joined Slim Cessna's Auto Club in 1998, around the same time as Lord Dwight Pentecost, after being friends with Slim Cessna for a few years. This was during the time that Munly was recording Galvanized Yankee in New York. Part of the reason he agreed to join was that he liked how the band was operated by existing members. Since then, he has been the band's primary songwriter and shares frontman/vocalist duties with Cessna. Always Say Please and Thank You (2000) is the first SCAC album that Munly appears on.

Munly and Slim Cessna were featured in a segment of "Seven Signs: Music, Myth, and the American South" (2008), a film by JD Wilkes of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers. Munly recited the original story titled "Döder Made Me Do It" and joined Slim in performing "Children of the Lord" by Slim Cessna's Auto Club.

Munly and The Lee Lewis Harlots

'Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots' was a six-piece gothic country band with mostly stringed instruments. According to a Munly fansite, the band was active between 2000 and 2006. However, there are concert videos on YouTube that were recorded in February 2007. They also made an appearance at Westword's Denver Music Showcase in June 2007.

In July 2006, Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots was voted the best band in Colorado by over 100 music experts in the Denver Post Underground Music Poll.

Their only album, Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots, has received much critical acclaim. The original album was initially released in August 2004 through Alternative Tentacles. A combined CD/DVD double-album was released in October 2004 as a joint release between Alternative Tentacles and Smooch Records. It came with additional features such as: the original album in surround sound, three additional bonus tracks, lyrics read by Munly, and photos of the band. Of the three bonus tracks, only one is a previously unreleased Harlots track: "Rufus Wainwright, I'm Coming After You". The album was re-released on vinyl in August 2013 through the label Pesanta Urfolk. It contained a booklet of lyrics and updated cover art by Benjamin A. Vierling.

They recorded a version of "Everyone Is Guilty #2" for the Smooch Records compilation album, Crossbreeding Begins At Home (2004). It would later become an 'Auto Club' song, released on Cipher in 2008.

"Amen Corner", from their self-titled record, was featured on another Smooch Records compilation, Radio 1190: Local Shakedown, Vol. 2 (2004), and "Old Service Road" was featured on the Alternative Tentacles compilation album, Sonic Terror Surge 2007.

Munly and The Lupercalians

'Munly and the Lupercalians' is Munly's second side project, which was started around 2006–2007. The original lineup of the band included many, if not all, members of the Lee Lewis Harlots. The current lineup contains most of the current members of Slim Cessna's Auto Club: Munly, Slim Cessna, Lord Dwight Pentecost, Rebecca Vera, and Andrew Warner. On stage, each band member, except for Munly, wears a costume that identifies them as a member of the fictional town of 'Lupercalia.'

The goal is to produce a multi-album set tentatively titled The Kinnery Of Lupercalia, which is all about the town and its colorful residents. Its residents have been described as "families who interact with each other"

Although an unauthorized demo album was released in 2009, the first official album by the band, Petr & the Wulf, was released in October 2010 through Alternative Tentacles. although most of it was actually already written in 2012, perhaps earlier. most likely through SCAC Unincorporated Records, although the release date was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 24, 2022, the band posted the vinyl album cover art for Kinnery of Lupercalia: Undelivered Legion and announced that it would be available to pre-order until the official release date of May 13, 2022. The first single, "Ahmen", was released on March 21, 2022.

The band also stated that this would be the only KOL album recorded by them; the other two will be recorded and released by Slim Cessna's Auto Club and DBUK. On May 24, 2024, Slim Cessna's Auto Club released Kinnery of Lupercalia: Buell Legion.

Denver Broncos UK The Denver Broncos UK is an experimental folk quartet that began touring together in 2012. They are now commonly referred to as DBUK in order to dispel any notion that they are connected to the Denver Broncos football team or the Bronco's fanbase in the United Kingdom.

The band formed in 2006 with just Munly, Lord Dwight Pentecost, and Slim Cessna; Rebecca Vera joined later on.

Their debut full-length album, Songs One Through Eight was released in March 2015 by their own label, SCACUNINCORPORATED. A few songs that appear on the album are original recordings from 2006 and 2007, which do not include Rebecca. Songs Nine Through Sixteen was released in October 2019, also on their own record label. A double-album titled Songs One Through Sixteen was released in November 2018 through the European record label Glitterhouse Records.

Their cover of "Top Yourself" by The Raconteurs is included on the album Rockin' Legends Pay Tribute to Jack White, released in November 2013.

In December 2020, DBUK covered "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats for Wheelerfest 2020, a two-day virtual musical event which hosted by musician Sean Wheeler and broadcast from Mexico City, Mexico. Each band created one or more videos to contribute with a "freak show" theme. In DBUK's video, Munly sat outside on a chair, wearing a black hat, clothing, and a non-surgical cloth mask. He held a "dummy" baby doll in his arms and manually moved the doll's mouth to the lyrics. There were computerized graphics interspersed between. An official recording of the song has not been released.

The Road Home

Munly joined "Scott Kelly and The Road Home" in 2015, a side project formed by Scott Kelly and Noah Landis of Neurosis. The band was renamed "The Road Home" after Greg Dale's departure.

He performed a small number of shows in the west and southwest parts of the United States in January and February 2015, which included California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. He contributed vocals and autoharp to live performances.

He recorded only one song with The Road Home, which was the single "The Forgiven Ghost in Me."

W.A.R. Records released the album More Than Mountains: A Benefit For Colorado Conservation in September 1996, where Munly made two appearances – one as a member of Slim Cessna's Auto Club, and the other with The Winebottles, on the track "Sasquatch". It was also on Crossbreeding Begins at Home, another Smooch Records compilation album, which received a limited release of 200 copies in January 2004.

Other ventures

Writing

Besides being the primary songwriter in all of his bands, he is also an accomplished author and playwright.

Munly's most recent publication is a collection of short stories titled "Confessions to Scare...". Each story in the collection is given by a member of the fictional town of Lupercalia. Two editions have been released. The first edition, limited to 200 printed copies and only released in the United States, was published by Devil's Jump Press in August 2021. The second edition, expanded to 1,000 printed copies and released worldwide, was published by SCACUNINCWORDS in December 2021. SCACUNINCWORDS is a publishing house formed by the SCACUNINCORPORATED record label, in partnership with Devil's Jump Press.

His first book, "Ten Songs With No Music", was released in 2001 by Maude O.K. Publishing. It is currently out of print. it is a collection of stories based on characters featured in some of his songs. Each chapter shares a title with a song from either Munly's solo efforts or from "Always Say Please and Thank You" by Slim Cessna's Auto Club.

One of those stories, "Cattle, I Will Hang" was made into a short black-and-white film, directed and produced by Munly with Rebecca Vera. It is the story of which the song on Jimmy Carter Syndrome is based and runs approximately 36 minutes in length. Munly narrates and voices all four characters in the story, while making a few in-person appearances as well.

According to one fan on the website guestbook of Slim Cessna's Auto Club, another one of Munly's books may be titled "Life on a Limb". The comment was made in 2004, and although no other information can be found regarding the title, Munly confirmed that he was in the midst of writing a second book in an interview with Kaffeine Buzz in 2005. His story was titled "A Re-Birth Certificate."

Munly has also written some plays for which he has won the Southern Heritage and Young North American Playwright awards. According to his profile on ACX, he has been in a variety of small productions onstage and in film.

In 2000, he appeared in the music video for "Clogger" by 16 Horsepower as "The Clogger" himself, clogging (or clog dancing) on stage. Former 'Harlots' Elin Palmer and Rebecca Vera also appear in the video, as does former 'Auto Club' member Bob Ferbrache. Vera and Ferbrache are seen in the audience, while Palmer plays the xylophone on stage with the band.

In 2012, Munly was personally contacted by Shooter Jennings to participate in his short film, The Other Life, directed by Blake Judd in Kentucky. He also narrates the beginning of Jennings' music video for "Gunslinger" off of the album "The Other Life".

Artistry

Songwriting

Munly is the chief songwriter for both his solo endeavors and side projects. It is a role that he is happy to take on by himself, believing that a band's success is dependent on playing to individual strengths rather than collaboration with members on each part of an album's creation.

Musical style His music has ties to alt-country and Gothic-Americana. Common themes include religion, violence and dysfunctional relationships; often they are intertwined. His increasingly narrative songs often feature banjo and, since the recording of his fourth album, Jimmy Carter Syndrome, strings.

One topic that Munly deliberately does not write about is politics, since he "hates" music that veers into that kind of territory. Audio samples can be found on YouTube.

Early on in his solo career, he sang at a higher register than what is typically heard on his later records.

On the expanded DVDs of Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots (2004) and The Commandments According to SCAC (2016), Munly read the lyrics of each song as poetry, employing a wide range of voices to the characters in his songs.

Personal life Munly has a sister and two brothers.

Following in his father's footsteps, Munly is a Freemason of the thirty-second degree.

Discography

Solo albums Blurry (1996) Munly de Dar He (1997) Galvanized Yankee (1999) Jimmy Carter Syndrome (2002) There Is No Road Home (2023)

as Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots (2004)

as Munly and the Lupercalians Petr & the Wulf (2010) Kinnery of Lupercalia: Undelivered Legion (2022)

with Denver Broncos UK (DBUK) Songs One Through Eight (2015) Songs One Through Sixteen (2018) Songs Nine Through Sixteen (2019)

with The Road Home "The Forgiven Ghost In Me" (2015)