“I never wanted to sing. I just wanted … to hide in the back and just play,” Kurt Cobain told Rolling Stone in 1994. Listen to the music of the Brooklyn-based guitarist and singer Grey McMurray and you may think he feels the same way. McMurray has played with the groups Tongues in Trees and itsnotyouitsme, and has scored a number of films, most recently the 2013 Without Shepherds, an award-winning documentary shot in Pakistan. It’s with his first solo album, the 10-track “Stay Up,” released on heavyweight vinyl last month, that McMurray establishes himself not only as a gifted singer but as a guitarist first and foremost, his instrument taking center stage, unshowy—“the world’s least obtrusive guitarist,” the Guardian has said of him—but clear and commanding. McMurray will be promoting “Stay Up” with live performances in New York City throughout the fall. —J.V.

Other live performances: Happylucky no. 1 (October 19).