Cornelia Murr Brings “Run to the Center” to Austin’s 29th Street Ballroom
Show Review ★ Danny Pedraza★ @jaydpedraza★ 2 Minutes
On a quiet Sunday night, the seasoned alternative singer-songwriter Cornelia Murr brought a setlist filled with fan favorites, deep cuts, and her new evergreen songs from recent 2025 release, Run to the Center to Austin’s 29th Street Ballroom. The evening opened with Storey Littleton, whose fingerpicked guitar lines set an intimate fitting tone for the venue before fellow opener Reverend Baron took the stage. Lead singer, Daniel Garcia charmed the crowd early in the night with his smooth and folky vocal delivery as his band chugged gracefully under his voice like an old Chevy driving on a gravel road.
Joined by her openers, Cornelia Murr and her band took the stage to a roaring applause from the Sunday night audience. After opening the show with the track In the Wings, “Soundman Dan” came to the rescue to fix some wiring issues with Cornelia’s keyboard. After the brief technical lull, it was obvious the band had settled into their groove as during the ending of Gotta Give, Daniel Garcia offered the crowd a ridiculously good guitar solo. During Spiral of Beauty, the heart of the band was revealed by way of multi-instrumentalist Henry Raker. Dressed in a black McCartney-esque suit, Raker delighted the energetic track with echoing flute riffs.
At the middle of the show, the band jumped into the song I Have a Woman Inside My Soul. Within those six minutes the band accomplished something unique, at a point it felt like they could’ve just jammed for the rest of the night and no one in the crowd would’ve been opposed to it. After the crowd settled from their dancing, Cornelia addressed the crowd “Thank you for making me have a good day…I wasn’t before.”
Cornelia Murr’s stamina was tested during her performance of Man on My Mind, as she impressively kept a fast tempo with her apple-shaped shaker whilst also singing. The Austin crowd was gifted a gorgeous ambient sound-bath and a heart-shattering vocal performance from Murr during Run to the Center. Even with her singing subtly over the ambience, Murr’s words about being grounded within oneself and not a place resonated with the Austin crowd as they watched in silence. After the closing song, Bless Yr Lil Heart concluded a funny moment occurred as the crowd settled from cheering and Murr meekishly said, “That was actually our last song.” The crowd laughed and quickly began to plead for an encore much to Murr’s delight.
Once the crowd’s requests collectively landed on one song and Murr agreed, Only You Know would close out the night. The Dion cover sent the room into a slow-motion warmth, the crowd swayed together like they'd known each other for years and weren't quite ready to say goodnight. As the last note of the song faded, a crowd member gave Murr a bouquet of flowers,
a fitting punctuation for the night. It was the kind of send-off that makes a Sunday night feel like it meant something and for the people packed into the 29th Street Ballroom, it absolutely did.
