GURF MORLIX
''EATIN' AT ME''
FEBRUARY 3 2015
46:30
1 Dirty Old Buffalo 05:45
2 Grab the Wheel 04:18
3 Elephant's Graveyard 06:49
4 Orphan Tears 04:31
5 The Dog I Am 04:32
6 50 Years 05:11
7 Dinah 03:11
8 Last Call 03:59
9 Born in Lackawanna 03:38
10 Blue Smoke 04:33
REVIEW
By Jon Sobel, January 31 2015
Eatin’ at Me, Gurf Morlix‘s new album of all original songs, is a beautifully produced work of dusty Americana. It opens with a gritty minor-key punch to the gut, the presumably autobiographical mini-epic “Dirty Old Buffalo,” which paints a historical panorama of Buffalo NY with reminiscences about a musician’s life there around the 1970s. Morlix was in fact “Born in Lackawanna” outside Buffalo, as a song by that name – one with a heavily personal flavor – declares later on the album.
Morlix, whom I’ve written about before, is a top-flight musician, songwriter, and producer. He backed up Lucinda Williams for many years, and has worked with Warren Zevon, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and an assortment of other roots-music honorables. He memorialized an early collaborator, songwriter Blaze Foley, by recording an album of Foley’s songs not long ago. But I like him better on his own songs, and this is the best Gurf Morlix album I’ve heard yet. “Find your passion, dare it to kill you/Grab the wheel, drive till you die,” he intones in the confessional-sounding “Grab the Wheel” – good metaphors for a head-on yet somehow slant-minded approach to life and art.
With its short, hollow lyrical lines and grim, sliding guitar chords, the insistent story song “Elephant’s Graveyard” could be a ballad off one of Bob Dylan’s 21st century albums. And like Dylan, Morlix uses his voice like a small child with a paintbrush, not concerned for subtleties. He deploys his gravelly baritone in staccato bursts and records it with minimal reverb and other effects. The resulting up-front vocal quality often verges on a sneer, a good analogue for the sly negativity of most of the lyrics. Yet his delivery always carries a gritty sensitivity as well.
None of that makes the album a downer. The sustained tension and tightly controlled release built into the songs and arrangements keeps the energy level high, even when the tempos are slow, as they often are. In the bluesy “The Dog I Am” the songwriter takes the canine viewpoint with a vengeance: “Now I ain’t your average pup/I like you just fine but I know which way is up/And one of these days I’m gonna scram/Like the dog I am.”
And he follows up that slice of redolent mud with the album’s most lyrical piece, “50 Years,” in which a man approaching old age recalls his youth as a girl-shy aspiring musician hanging out with his friends. “I used to love the sound that time made rushing by my ears/Now it’s gone by in the blink of an eye, and it’s been 50 years.” Anyone wading through his or her second half-century is likely to be able to identify with that, and anyone of any age can appreciate the song’s honeyed melancholy.
“My pride is in a puddle on the floor/I’m roughly escorted to the door,” sings the narrator of “Last Call.” But in these incisive songs Morlix’s narrators are always finding a way back in, whether through melody, metaphor, reminiscence, or just the howl of a sweet, raunchy guitar.
BIOGRAPHY
by Linda Seida/AMG
After making a name for himself as a record producer for a roster of other artists that includes Robert Earl Keen and Lucinda Williams, Gurf Morlix struck out on his own with a solo effort when Catamount Records issued Toad of Titicaca in 2000. Morlix, a guitar player who sings and plays a number of other instruments, penned 11 numbers for his debut. The tracks, showcasing the many facets of Morlix as a songwriter, include a humorous homage to actor Dan Blocker, who played Hoss on the Western television series Bonanza; the equally funny "Greatest Show on Earth"; the country-flavored "Robin Sings at Midnight"; and the heart-tugging lament "Rainin' on Me." A native of Buffalo, NY, Morlix began his career in 1966. During his youth he taught himself to play music after his attention was snagged in a big way first by Elvis, and then by Hank Williams. Blown away by Williams' talent, Morlix picked up the steel guitar and focused on country music. New York didn't offer much in the way of country bands he could hook up with, so the aspiring musician headed for California, where he met Lucinda Williams. Morlix ended up leading her band, singing, and playing guitar, as well as eventually producing her albums. Before she hit it big, however, the band played local hangouts and nightspots, sometimes pulling in as little as ten dollars for an entire evening's work. Morlix, tired of the unprofitable grind, prepared himself to call it quits. Before he could tell Williams, however, she got word that a record deal was in the works, and he was slated to work as her producer. A more profitable and fruitful time followed, but Morlix and Williams parted in later years in a way that left their friendship in trouble. Through the years, Morlix also produced such artists as Ray Wylie Hubbard, Tom Russell, Butch Hancock, Ian "Mac" McLagan, Slaid Cleaves, the Pinedogs, and the Setters. His numerous recording credits include works by Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Miller, Peter Case, Bob Neuwirth, Trish Murphy, Marvin Etzioni, Andrew Hardin, Jim Lauderdale, Don Walser, Michael Penn, Linda McRae, Danny Tate, and Mojo Nixon, among others. Buddy Miller included "A Girl Like You," a Morlix-penned tune, on Your Love and Other Lies, an album he recorded for Hightone. As a member of a group called the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, Morlix plays weekly at the Austin, TX, nightspot Empanada Parlour. The band and Morlix released an album through Catamount, for which he again donned his producer's hat.
WEBSITE
''EATIN' AT ME''
FEBRUARY 3 2015
46:30
1 Dirty Old Buffalo 05:45
2 Grab the Wheel 04:18
3 Elephant's Graveyard 06:49
4 Orphan Tears 04:31
5 The Dog I Am 04:32
6 50 Years 05:11
7 Dinah 03:11
8 Last Call 03:59
9 Born in Lackawanna 03:38
10 Blue Smoke 04:33
REVIEW
By Jon Sobel, January 31 2015
Eatin’ at Me, Gurf Morlix‘s new album of all original songs, is a beautifully produced work of dusty Americana. It opens with a gritty minor-key punch to the gut, the presumably autobiographical mini-epic “Dirty Old Buffalo,” which paints a historical panorama of Buffalo NY with reminiscences about a musician’s life there around the 1970s. Morlix was in fact “Born in Lackawanna” outside Buffalo, as a song by that name – one with a heavily personal flavor – declares later on the album.
Morlix, whom I’ve written about before, is a top-flight musician, songwriter, and producer. He backed up Lucinda Williams for many years, and has worked with Warren Zevon, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and an assortment of other roots-music honorables. He memorialized an early collaborator, songwriter Blaze Foley, by recording an album of Foley’s songs not long ago. But I like him better on his own songs, and this is the best Gurf Morlix album I’ve heard yet. “Find your passion, dare it to kill you/Grab the wheel, drive till you die,” he intones in the confessional-sounding “Grab the Wheel” – good metaphors for a head-on yet somehow slant-minded approach to life and art.
With its short, hollow lyrical lines and grim, sliding guitar chords, the insistent story song “Elephant’s Graveyard” could be a ballad off one of Bob Dylan’s 21st century albums. And like Dylan, Morlix uses his voice like a small child with a paintbrush, not concerned for subtleties. He deploys his gravelly baritone in staccato bursts and records it with minimal reverb and other effects. The resulting up-front vocal quality often verges on a sneer, a good analogue for the sly negativity of most of the lyrics. Yet his delivery always carries a gritty sensitivity as well.
None of that makes the album a downer. The sustained tension and tightly controlled release built into the songs and arrangements keeps the energy level high, even when the tempos are slow, as they often are. In the bluesy “The Dog I Am” the songwriter takes the canine viewpoint with a vengeance: “Now I ain’t your average pup/I like you just fine but I know which way is up/And one of these days I’m gonna scram/Like the dog I am.”
And he follows up that slice of redolent mud with the album’s most lyrical piece, “50 Years,” in which a man approaching old age recalls his youth as a girl-shy aspiring musician hanging out with his friends. “I used to love the sound that time made rushing by my ears/Now it’s gone by in the blink of an eye, and it’s been 50 years.” Anyone wading through his or her second half-century is likely to be able to identify with that, and anyone of any age can appreciate the song’s honeyed melancholy.
“My pride is in a puddle on the floor/I’m roughly escorted to the door,” sings the narrator of “Last Call.” But in these incisive songs Morlix’s narrators are always finding a way back in, whether through melody, metaphor, reminiscence, or just the howl of a sweet, raunchy guitar.
BIOGRAPHY
by Linda Seida/AMG
After making a name for himself as a record producer for a roster of other artists that includes Robert Earl Keen and Lucinda Williams, Gurf Morlix struck out on his own with a solo effort when Catamount Records issued Toad of Titicaca in 2000. Morlix, a guitar player who sings and plays a number of other instruments, penned 11 numbers for his debut. The tracks, showcasing the many facets of Morlix as a songwriter, include a humorous homage to actor Dan Blocker, who played Hoss on the Western television series Bonanza; the equally funny "Greatest Show on Earth"; the country-flavored "Robin Sings at Midnight"; and the heart-tugging lament "Rainin' on Me." A native of Buffalo, NY, Morlix began his career in 1966. During his youth he taught himself to play music after his attention was snagged in a big way first by Elvis, and then by Hank Williams. Blown away by Williams' talent, Morlix picked up the steel guitar and focused on country music. New York didn't offer much in the way of country bands he could hook up with, so the aspiring musician headed for California, where he met Lucinda Williams. Morlix ended up leading her band, singing, and playing guitar, as well as eventually producing her albums. Before she hit it big, however, the band played local hangouts and nightspots, sometimes pulling in as little as ten dollars for an entire evening's work. Morlix, tired of the unprofitable grind, prepared himself to call it quits. Before he could tell Williams, however, she got word that a record deal was in the works, and he was slated to work as her producer. A more profitable and fruitful time followed, but Morlix and Williams parted in later years in a way that left their friendship in trouble. Through the years, Morlix also produced such artists as Ray Wylie Hubbard, Tom Russell, Butch Hancock, Ian "Mac" McLagan, Slaid Cleaves, the Pinedogs, and the Setters. His numerous recording credits include works by Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Miller, Peter Case, Bob Neuwirth, Trish Murphy, Marvin Etzioni, Andrew Hardin, Jim Lauderdale, Don Walser, Michael Penn, Linda McRae, Danny Tate, and Mojo Nixon, among others. Buddy Miller included "A Girl Like You," a Morlix-penned tune, on Your Love and Other Lies, an album he recorded for Hightone. As a member of a group called the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, Morlix plays weekly at the Austin, TX, nightspot Empanada Parlour. The band and Morlix released an album through Catamount, for which he again donned his producer's hat.
WEBSITE
No comments :
Post a Comment