Murphy David Bellino took the long way to finally arrive in Cherokee County, as the native of Brooklyn, N.Y., also spent a number of years in Hawaii.
When he moved to the islands in the early 1990s, he had been used to playing rock ’n’ roll, particularly Southern rock music.
At first, he thought Hawaiian music was a little boring. It was quite different from what he was used to and a “tad bit” mellow.
Bellino had stopped playing his guitar for several years before he got the yearning to pick it up again and start playing. However, he didn’t want to play in standard tuning; he wanted to play in alternate tunings.
After tuning his guitar to what he knew – he placed his fingers down on two strings, started when he heard an interesting sound and let it take him from there.
As he started writing, he realized the music was teaching him how to play, as he had never finger-picked before.
On Christmas Day in 2001, a new melody came to Bellino. It reminded him of the South Shore in Honolulu in the summer, when the ocean swells would carry the surfers as they went in and out of the waves. The melody was reminiscent of that.
His instrumental piece, “Summer Swell,” was born.
One day, Bellino was recording in a studio owned by Kit Ebersbach, who did background music for a lot of different companies. He heard and liked Bellino’s melody.
Ebersbach passed it on to others, including the Carpenters Union and Hawaiian Airlines. The latter liked the song enough to use it for 10 years as the theme for all of their radio and television commercials.
Bellino also arranged and performed some of Ebersbach’s work for Pizza Hut commercials.
Along with the guitar, he played an ipu – a Hawaiian percussion instrument that is actually a gourd.
Other work included playing for the Hawaiian Visitors Bureau, where commercials for travel aired in Japan.
Bellino was happy when a local island television show host chose his work for the production’s 10th
anniversary.
When asked how he feels about music, Bellino said, “Music is inspirational when it’s really happening.”
Today, Bellino still enjoys his sixth-grade love of playing the guitar. He’s retired and lives in Murphy with his wife of nine years, Arleen Elliott. He also spends his time biking and doing landscape gardening.
To hear “Summer Swell,” visit www.reverbnation.com/lovinroadmusic.