Folk morrissey in Folk Music

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"Something I Saw or Thought I Saw" (04/03/2001) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsPersonnel: Bill Morrisey (vocals, guitar); Kent Allyn (guitar, piano, keyboards, fretless bass); Johnny Cunningham (violin); Marc Elbaum (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Cormac McCarthy (harmonica); David Henderson (bass). Recorded at Blue Jay Recording Studio, Carlisle, Massachusetts. Includes liner notes by Ted Drozdowski.

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"Inside" (01/21/1992) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsNew England based folk singer Bill Morrissey's fourth album, INSIDE, is arguably his best effort. Certainly, it's a masterful weave of Morrissey's cracked leather vocal delivery and unflinching eye for detail. With spare but well placed instrumentation (a violin here, a touch of organ there) behind him, the singer encapsulates both utter defeat and hard won happiness. The beauty of Morrissey's take on humanity is that his characters aren't holding for something better. Well-worn brides wear off-white, men hear their telephone ring as they watch their houses burn down, and married couples watch the late, late show to avoid being alone with one another. The presence of fellow Greg Brown is a welcome one, as his rumble lends "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" an extra air of dread. "Robert Johnson," Morrissey's update of the doomed blues legend's myth similarly paints a chilling portrait of inevitable doom. And when all hope seems lost, along comes the giddy "Rite of Spring," a song that breathes humor and warmth into the usually tired tale of May-December romances.

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"Standing Eight" (10/15/1989) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsPersonnel includes: Bill Morrissey, Suzanne Vega, Patty Larkin, Johnny Cunningham, Shawn Colvin, Richard Gates, David Patt, John Curtis, Peter Keane, David Ruskin, Robin Ratteau, Eric Lillequist, Dean Adrien, Rick Watson, Cormac McCarthy, Greg Hopkins, Leslie Sivolkos. By the time of Bill Morrissey's third release, STANDING EIGHT, he was well on his way to becoming one of New England's best folk-singers, and one of the top writers in the genre as well. From the opening bars of the melancholy "Handsome Molly," it's clear that Morrissey is an unflinching storyteller, a folk singer who accomplishes what few of his peers can manage: the creation of evocative tales that reveal the human condition without resorting to sanctimony or melodrama. It is this condition--one of lost loves, unrealized dreams, infidelity, and succumbing to an open bottle of whiskey--that Morrissey chronicles and inhabits. The weariness of "Motels and Planes" captures the bleary existence of the traveling troubadour who swallows the bitter truth that his life's ambition has amounted to isolation. What elevates the song, and the album in general, is the absence of complaint. Never does the singer offer excuses or ask for a second chance. There are brief moments of comic relief with the hilarious "Party at the U.N." and "Car and Driver," the latter offering telling couplets of nearly every vehicle imaginable.

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"Night Train" (09/17/1993) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsPersonnel: Bill Morrissey (vocals, guitar); Ellen Cross, David Johansen (vocals); Duke Levine (electric guitar); Top Topham (12-string guitar); Peter Keane (guitar); Johnny Cunningham (violin); Vernon David (cello); Richard Gates (bass); Billy Conway (drums, percussion). Recorded at Long View Farm, North Brookfield, Massachusetts. By the time of Bill Morrissey's fifth release, NIGHT TRAIN, the folk world had come to expect excellence from the New England songwriter. Good thing then, that NIGHT TRAIN delivers. While it doesn't plumb the same number of emotional sinkholes that its predecessor, INSIDE, does, the album is full of top-shelf vignettes which illuminate the harsh existence of day-to-day life. Comfort comes with a price tag, as "Sandy," a tale of a woman who shuts out the outside world by immersing herself in church, indicates. Whether there is any true comfort to be found at all is an open question Morrissey explores on the album's highlight, "Birches." A metaphorical investigation of a husband and wife's passionless marriage, this song is a treatise marking the emotional struggle of digging in for the long haul. The presence of David Johansen's barreling vocals is a distraction alongside Morrissey's more laconic delivery. He quickly gets back with "Blues in the Morning," "Broken Waltz Time," and "Walk Down These Streets," the latter displaying the dubious merits of post-relationship emotional detachment.

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"Friend of Mine" (04/01/1993) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsBill Morrissey's collaboration with long-time friend and fellow folk singer Greg Brown is an easy-going collection of cover tunes and little known numbers. Taken as a breather between Morrissey's meticulous releases, the album is inviting in its casual offhand feel. That the two would gel together on record is a bit of a surprise considering their differences. Where Morrissey is clipped, Brown is freewheeling. Where Morrissey is painstaking, Brown is spontaneous. And perhaps most importantly, where Morrissey's voice sounds like a fistful of cracked dirt, Brown possesses a rich rumble. The joy then, is in the marriage of these disparate styles. From the plaintive "The Road" to the raucous hum of "Memphis Tennessee, the two singers are as relaxed as friends should be. The album's success is just as much Brown's as it is Morrissey's. Indeed his mournful reading of The Rolling Stones' late '60s anthem "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is startling, and has the feel of digging deeply into the futility of the by-gone era. With stark accompaniment, Brown somehow furrows even more sorrow and weariness than Jagger did with a full choir behind him.

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"Bill Morrissey" (06/1991) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsBILL MORRISSEY was re-recorded it its entirety for its release on CD. It contains three tracks that were not available on the original vinyl issue. Bill Morrissey's 1984 debut took an interesting turn when it was reissued on compact disc in 1991: Morrissey re-recorded the album in its entirety and added three extra songs. The results are impressive, as the singer/songwriter brings an added resonance to the songs, the byproduct of the years that he spent seasoning and getting familiar with the material. These finely detailed vignettes, supported solely by Morrissey's acoustic guitar work, marked the beginning of the career of a startlingly good songwriter. His poetic observations create riveting imagery, as in "Barstow," where he sings in the chorus, "Don't the freight yard sound like a drunk in a metalshop." This excellent storyteller knows how to create the characters who populate his songs, breathing life into them with a voice capable of pathos, humor, sympathy, anger, and more.

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"Songs of Mississippi John Hurt" (02/02/1999) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsPersonnel: Bill Morrissey (vocals, guitar); Peter Keane (guitar, background vocals); Frederic Koella (mandolin); Cormac McCarthy (harmonica); Ed Peterson (saxophone); Jamil Sharif (trumpet); David Torkanowski (piano); James Singleton (acoustic bass); David Lee Watson (electric bass); Johnny Vidacovich (drums); Elaine Foster, Lisa Foster (background vocals). Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana. Includes liner notes by Bill Morrissey. SONGS OF MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. As a singer-songwriter whose reputation rests solely on his own compositions, it's an unusual move for Bill Morrissey to record an entire album of someone else's songs. Still, so strong is the influence of country blues legend John Hurt on Morrisey's own work that the result seems as logical as it is satisfying. The artist's creaky, homespun vocal style and simple but nimble fingerpicking lend themselves naturally to these songs, all either written or popularized by Hurt. One can't accuse Morrissey of turning Hurt's music into a museum piece, though. While many of the tunes are traditional guitar-and-vocal exercises, several are updated/transformed via the addition of great New Orleans musicians on drums, piano, horns and more.

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"North" (09/15/1991) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Rounder RecordsBill Morrissey's second album is made up of 11 eloquent pieces that document life in small New England towns. It's rich with an abiding sense of place and how the passage of time can effect change. Morrissey utilizes a cast of three instrumentalists to add spare and supple playing to his own vocals and guitar. Judiciously deployed slide guitar, bass, clarinet, and a few other instruments enliven the character of each song. "It's Dangerous Out There" employs multiple reeds, while "Pantherville" is underscored by a second guitar. Throughout it all, Morrissey's deeply resonant singing is expressive and warm--his perfect voice breathes life into the varied characters who inhabit these songs.

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"Songs of Mississippi John Hurt" (09/16/2003) Folk Morrissey, Bill, Tokuma RecordsPersonnel: Bill Morrissey (vocals, guitar); Peter Keane (guitar, background vocals); Frederic Koella (mandolin); Cormac McCarthy (harmonica); Ed Peterson (saxophone); Jamil Sharif (trumpet); David Torkanowski (piano); James Singleton (acoustic bass); David Lee Watson (electric bass); Johnny Vidacovich (drums); Elaine Foster, Lisa Foster (background vocals). Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana. Includes liner notes by Bill Morrissey. SONGS OF MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. Japanese remastered reissue features a mini-LP gatefold paper sleeve. As a singer-songwriter whose reputation rests solely on his own compositions, it's an unusual move for Bill Morrissey to record an entire album of someone else's songs. Still, so strong is the influence of country blues legend John Hurt on Morrisey's own work that the result seems as logical as it is satisfying. The artist's creaky, homespun vocal style and simple but nimble fingerpicking lend themselves naturally to these songs, all either written or popularized by Hurt. One can't accuse Morrissey of turning Hurt's music into a museum piece, though. While many of the tunes are traditional guitar-and-vocal exercises, several are updated/transformed via the addition of great New Orleans musicians on drums, piano, horns and more.
 
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"You'll Never Get to Heaven" (04/16/1996) Folk Morrissey, Bill, PhiloPersonnel: Bill Morrissey (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Michael Toles (acoustic & electric guitars, piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Tom Fischer (clarinet); Bill Samuel (tenor & baritone saxophones); Jamil Sharif (trumpet); Chris Belleau (trombone); James Singleton (acoustic bass); Lee Allen Zeno (electric bass); Johnny Vidacovich (drums); Charles Elam III, Earl J. Smith, Jr. (background vocals). Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana. YOU'LL NEVER GET TO HEAVEN marks quite a departure for Bill Morrissey. The folk world, it can be safely assumed, was probably taken aback from the album's decidedly different feel. Whereas Morrisey's previous albums were notable for their spare instrumentation (often what was left off was just as important as what actually was played), this album finds the singer incorporating veteran soul musicians and a full horn section. The fact that the fuller sound doesn't overwhelm Morrissey, a singer who sounds like he drinks full pitchers of sand before recording, is a testament to both the production and Morrissey's skills as a songwriter and interpretive performer. On the title track, in between bursts of brass, he evokes the same nuances of the trudging and nearly beaten human spirit that highlight his earlier work. However different the album's sound is, the quality of the songs remains the same. In Morrissey's case that's praise of the highest order.
 
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"You'll Never Get to Heaven" (04/16/1996) Folk Morrissey, Bill, PhiloPersonnel: Bill Morrissey (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Michael Toles (acoustic & electric guitars, piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Tom Fischer (clarinet); Bill Samuel (tenor & baritone saxophones); Jamil Sharif (trumpet); Chris Belleau (trombone); James Singleton (acoustic bass); Lee Allen Zeno (electric bass); Johnny Vidacovich (drums); Charles Elam III, Earl J. Smith, Jr. (background vocals). Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana. YOU'LL NEVER GET TO HEAVEN marks quite a departure for Bill Morrissey. The folk world, it can be safely assumed, was probably taken aback from the album's decidedly different feel. Whereas Morrisey's previous albums were notable for their spare instrumentation (often what was left off was just as important as what actually was played), this album finds the singer incorporating veteran soul musicians and a full horn section. The fact that the fuller sound doesn't overwhelm Morrissey, a singer who sounds like he drinks full pitchers of sand before recording, is a testament to both the production and Morrissey's skills as a songwriter and interpretive performer. On the title track, in between bursts of brass, he evokes the same nuances of the trudging and nearly beaten human spirit that highlight his earlier work. However different the album's sound is, the quality of the songs remains the same. In Morrissey's case that's praise of the highest order.
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