Morris the Cat
A Knoxville poet leaves them breathless
by Bill Friskics-Warren, Michael McCall and Jim Ridley
Knoxville poet and songwriter R. B. Morris has caused quite a stir since coming to town a couple of years ago and appearing in clubs with everyone from Greg Garing to Lucinda Williams. Morris’ following is certainly well-deserved: Few performers possess his gift for words—his hillbilly beatnik originals are equal parts Gary Snyder and Tom T. Hall—much less his incomparable band. Morris will undoubtedly sign a record deal sometime later this summer. As the current Americana boom continues to gain momentum, the former editor of The Hard Knoxville Review is in as good a position as anyone to become one of the movement’s brightest lights—perhaps even its hipster-proletarian answer to Bruce Springsteen.
Morris’ appearance with Ron Sexsmith at the Bluebird Cafe Thursday night more than justified the clack that seems to be building around him daily. Backed by Kenny Vaughn on lead guitar, Paul Griffith on drums, and with Lorne Rall sitting in for regular bassist Dave Jakes, Morris’ incendiary 12-song set included both familiar material (“Hell on a Poor Boy,” “Riding With O’Hanlan”) and new songs, the latter highlighted by the jazzy insouciance of the Chet Atkins-meets-Wes Montgomery “Spend Some Time With Me.” Morris’ band is truly something special: Their ability to inhabit a dizzying array of musical subgenres—from the Merle Travis-styled swing of “Going Down to Hot Springs” to “Can’t Get Up,” a soulful ballad harmonically reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”—is never less than amazing.
Morris’ set had such an air of completeness that some audience members left before Ron Sexsmith took the stage. The 31-year-old Toronto singer-songwriter’s 1995 debut has garnered enthusiastic reviews from critics and performers alike, including raves from Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. Without the benefit of seeing Sexsmith perform the songs, though, the album at first sounds slight, if not overly mannered: Sexsmith’s arrangements and phrasing seem inventive but somehow distant. Like a jazz soloist, he sings around rather than on the beat.
Sexsmith’s performance at the Bluebird, however, was a revelation. Singing with the quietly pained soulfulness of an angel with broken wings, Sexsmith projected the fragile not-of-this-world persona of River Phoenix’s character in My Own Private Idaho. Backed by only a bassist and percussionist, he played both new songs and material from his record, but his set’s most telling moment was a hauntingly devotional cover of the Beach Boys’ “Caroline No.” The song cast Sexsmith’s debut in a radically different light, bringing out the darkness that lurks underneath its tuneful surface like the California decadence and decay hidden in Brian Wilson’s seemingly endless summers. Kudos to Hybrid Vigor’s Kay Clary and Andy McLenon for putting together such a powerful double bill.
Members of the Murfreesboro-based rock ’n’ hip-hop quartet Jack Johnson caught the movie Barb Wire last weekend. Guitarist Paul Cochrane said he joined “a crowd of about 20 other guys” at a Friday-night showing; he was one of the few people watching the movie for reasons other than star Pamela Anderson Lee.
Two Jack Johnson songs, “Hit” and “Blondie’s Squad Car,” are featured in the movie. The band—which includes Cochrane, vocalist Kurtis McFarland, bassist Ethan Pilzer and drummer Simone White—was happy to discover that both songs are played nearly in their entirety. “To be able to sit in a theater and hear your music was pretty neat,” Cochrane says. “There’s a scene where she’s punching out a bad guy in a bar to our music. The sound dips down sometimes, but the song never stops playing. The guitar solo was real loud during a lot of the action, which was exciting for me.”
Cochrane says the band shouldn’t have any problem keeping the experience in perspective. “It’s a very bad movie,” he notes. “It’s really cheesy. It’ll probably only be in the theaters for a week and then go to video. But it’s still neat for us.”
The band got onto the soundtrack through its record company, San Diego-based PC! Records. “The owner of the company has friends with Darkhorse Entertainment,” coproducers of the movie and the company behind the Barb Wire comic book, Cochrane says. “They heard our music, liked it and wanted to use it.” The band’s album, Round One, was released in April.
Patty Griffin, a singer-songwriter from Maine, recorded part of her upcoming A&M Records debut in Nashville. The album, which manages to get ferociously loud despite featuring nothing but Griffin’s voice and guitar, will be out May 21. Griffin recorded part of it in the midtown kitchen of her manager, Michael Baker. She fell in love with the town while here, she says, and her stay definitely affected what wound up on the album. “Nashville has melodies floating through the air,” she muses. “You can’t help but hear them. They hit you in the head.” She mentions Jack’s Guitar Bar as one of her favorite haunts and performance spaces, and she hopes to perform in town around the time that her album is to be released; she’ll also be playing at Summer Lights.
Elliptical dispatches: Nashville’s Big Al & the Heavyweight Blues Band will be the featured “Blues Breaker” during the week of May 21 on the syndicated radio show House of Blues, aired locally on FM 100. “House Party” will be the track featured off their That Ain’t Nice CD; it was personally selected by the show’s host, blues enthusiast Dan Aykroyd. For a sample ahead of time, Big Al & the Heavyweight Blues Band perform Tuesday night at the Bourbon St. Blues & Boogie Bar....
Return to the glorious days of Nehru jackets, pop art and protests at the Hootenanny, an “environmental theater experience recreating the coffeehouses of the mid-’60s.” (We’ve seen an experience like this before; it was called Bongo Java.) The event promises “folk music, poetry readings and inflammatory statements” from acts such as Jane Baio, the Strothers Brothers, Bill Oaks and the Naked Truth Acting Troupe. Sponsored by the Actors Bridge, the Hootenanny takes place Friday night in the Rafters at the Barn at Belmont University. The coffeehouse opens at 6 p.m.; the show starts at 7. Call 292-2560 for more information....
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