After two albums of celebrating the Dead — as in Grateful — Dave McMurray decided it was time to breathe a little life back into his music.

On Friday, Nov. 14, the veteran Detroit saxophonist, flutist, bandleader and songwriter releases “I Love Life Even When I’m Hurting,” his first album of mostly original songs since his “Black Light Collective” album in 2020. It follows two “Deadication” albums comprised of Grateful Dead songs, which certainly elevated McMurray’s profile with a new audience, but was never intended to be his sole mode of music-making.

“I knew it was coming, because I’m always writing music and I needed an outlet for it,” explains McMurray, 70, a Cranbrook Schools alumnus. “And it’s like, ‘Hey, I am the outlet.’ I knew one way or another, I was going to do original musi

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