We had the good fortune of connecting with H. Daniel Murphy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi H. Daniel, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
my Father was eventually and finally a small business owner as was my Grandfather. they both had many other types of work before settling on small business owner, independents or renegades? i consider myself both but mostly the latter. it seems i have been somewhat of an independent contractor kind of guy. i have been a professional musician, cooked pizzas in my teenage years and traded them for jack in the box food from across the street. we both got tired of eating our own food. i worked with my Father for 11 years and became quite proficient in personal computers although self taught. eventually i became an independent computer mercenary for a while. small business, home computers, fixing old ones, designing and selling new ones. so i know business, procedures, computers, i can make my own business cards, flyers, brochures, product labels, websites, i have sales experience and right now, i’m on social security because i am too old to be given a chance, I have been classified too old and overqualified to hire. So why not? Murph’s Remedy Emporium became an official DBA in Texas in 2016 and was mainly an idea and a goal. my products work, actually, my products ROCK!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
my most successful creative exploit, except for monetarily, has been my off and on music career. I am honored to say, Sir Paul McCartney and the Beatles are responsible for me launching my effort to learn the bass guitar around 1964-ish. 1966 at the age of 13, i joined my first “professional” band. by professional i mean we got paid. but compared to most of the bands our age we actually were professional thanks to the guidance of a veteran performer who just happened to be the mother of 3 of the band members. i was lucky to get this early guidance and experience. the band members of Ronnie & the Ravens was: guitarist, vocalist and band leader, 13ish. keyboards and vocals 15ish. singing, dancing and prancing i called her, 16ish. all with performing experience in one way or another. me? total music experience including learning how to play, less than 2 years. so along with a ever changing drummer positions, we eventually placed 3rd in a contest of young musicians from Texas, Louisiana and new Mexico. i was 14. The top 10 contestants played a few songs at the downtown Houston Music hall with oh maybe several thousand people. It was amazing! In the photo of our band taken after the show I was trying to look cool. I just looked pissed! So then at around 16ish joined another band in progress, smoked weed for the first time, played a lot locally. Many fraternity parties. Watching drunken guys dancing poorly but having fun and harming no one, unless the fall down. while looking like fools though are responsible for the fact that I DO NOT DANCE because I swore that playing music and watching these guys was better than being one. Honeysuckle: 17is was in a modified version of the last band with myself and the drummer being the continuity. A run in a teen club and amazing place to play live with big name bands was the Catacombs Club run by the immortal Bob Cope was also continued, the original ancestor of this line of bands being me. I may not have started these bands but I believe I had a great creative influence on each one. Then the drummer and I formed a band with a guitarist and called it Peat Ridge. Another house band at the Catacombs. Honeysuckle and Peat Ridge were fortunate enough to be picked by Mr. Cope to the opening acts for numerous well known acts including Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, Buddy Miles, Lightnin’ Hopkins, new years eve 1967> 1968 opened for Spirit, and more I may remember later. 1971. Myself, former guitarist from Peat Ridge and an Australian drummer he had played with became Sugar Momma, a short lived band with original hard rock and other songs. We were in the studio doing 3 original songs for a demo tape so we could get some gigs. A guy heard us and said he would pay to record the tapes for an entire album and shop them around. We did so and if I must say, for the times, it was KICK ASS! Unfortunately, that man ran an agency that was operating as a tax loss for a larger agency and every thing they did costs money and nobody, especially us, made any money. He stole away in the night with his secretary to Nashville and that was that. I still have a copy of the tapes and converted them to digital some time ago. They can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/screwloose-lautrec Time passed and so did the bands. I went to Sam Houston State university in Huntsville, Texas and took music theory, double bass and ‘cello instructions. I decided I was in over my head because people are expected to be able to instantly sight read a piece of music they had never seen before for a final. They called it The Jury. I should have quit there. Then there was North Texas State now University I believe, in Denton, Texas and Ruh roh! Dropped out of all music courses but kept up the creative writing aka English Composition. That should have been a sign to continue playing and making music with the knowledge I had and learn to be a writer of some kind here at college. Oh crap. I was a stupid kid. Oh well that was 1972-74ish. I was musically retired-ished until I remember playing a couple of more years until 1977 and disco and live bands were no longer needed. Musical retirement again until 1992ish. Formed a band with a guitarist and composer doing original songs. We formed a band. All he wanted to do was play open mic and free type performances. The band was semi ok but I ROCKED as usual. I held things together and filled empty spaces and made what was ordinary to me, sound like magic to the listener. End of band because we made no money because of what’s his face. 1993 ends. oh wait, there’s more but i will come back later

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
if we had unlimited funds, i would start us out in down town houston, texas at the Club Quarters Hotel. historic hotel refurbished wonderfully. the kept the old wooden single pane glass windows and encased them between to specially fabricated window pieces that effectively froze time by keeping a lot of the old charm. then if it was spring to the city hall on a wednesday when all of the food vendors are there displaying their craft. not going to happen during the pandemic though. but afterwards, across the street to the old library at smith and mckinney. 3 stories of history. one area completely devoted to Texas History Research. then continuing south one block to Papas BBQ and get a loaded baked potato topped with loads of butter, bacon, green onion, cheese, sour cream more bacon and onion. this would be ordered to go because we filled NEARLY up at the food fair. we would sit down and i know i would have pecan pie and half sweet half unsweet iced tea we discussed the trip so far.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
well, like Ringo Starr of the Beatles sang, I get by with a little help from my friends. every one i have contact with who has a positive attitude influences me. experiences influence me. i was running a successful massage supply store at one time. my customers were small salons and independent LMTs, Licensed Massage Therapists. when a bunch of these franchise, sign a contract and we will give you $49 massage salons came to town and popped up everywhere like Pilgrim Cleaners, it hurt my customers which hurt me. so, in a space of time between 2013 and now, i closed the massage supply store {but not without learning A WHOLE LOT about essential oils, went bankrupt, had a 2001 Chevy Malibu which had been an amazing car, suffered a cracked cylinder head and was pronounced dead unless $3000 engine transplant happened, sold it for 800. and it was down hill from there. one inappropriate job after another until ending up in a homeless shelter for 3 years. got into a senior independent living high rise in 2018. and here i am. this whole experience from 2010 until now was a humbling experience but i made the most of it. i consider it a strategic retreat to use a military term. this period of time, every one i had associations and friendships with and all the good and bad experiences are responsible for what i am doing today and where i want to go nd my goals to get there

Website: https://murphs-emporium.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murphs_remedy_emporium/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-murphy-038a4359/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MurphsEmporium

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiLqsrS8r49oyXxsqy9ukzA

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