The Murk Family - Christmas With
This is the first of two posts on this Saturday before Christmas that will contain TWO links! During one of my vinyl raids of a local thrift shop here in Fort Wayne, I came across this album whose cover definitely caught my eye. Then I found a different version of the album in another bin! The Murk Family are Jim & Donna (the parents) and Bill, Becky, Brenda, and Barbara (the alliterated offspring ). The name sounded familiar. Then I remembered this . Their family caught a big break in 1963 when Jim won the "Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour" - the "American Idol" of its time. This led to hundreds of appearance all over the world. If you ever saw them perform, you probably wouldn't have forgotten them. Each one of the kids plays a stringed instrument while mom plays the vibraharp (see the back album cover below). This only sounds bad but it's not. There's a lot going on in this album (or albums). The first album (ornament cover) wa...