Diamond in the rough: Bill Morrissey appears August 18 at Middle Earth

By Alan Lewis | Special to the Vermont Guardian

posted August 11, 2006

Bill Morrissey told me,” said Vermont singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, “that even though his voice is quirky and unconventional and some people don’t love it, the upshot is that when he comes on the radio, there’s no question who it is. I dig that.”

So do a host of Morrissey fans likely to pack the Middle Earth Music Hall in Bradford for his August 18 appearance.

Morrissey called his voice “rough” but said, “I don’t sing flat or sharp. If I have any vocal strength at all I think it’s in my phrasing.

“I listened to Billie Holiday for 30 years before I realized she had barely over an octave range. She just phrased so well, singing behind and around the beat.

“My guitar work comes directly from Mississippi John Hurt. He had a beautiful, elegant, and understated style that was always there at the service of the song.”

Morrissey was high school friends with rocker Jeanne French, whose parents are New England bluegrass pioneers Bob and Grace French. Bob was the original banjo player in the classic ensemble Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys.

Morrissey said his introduction to old-time and bluegrass was Val. Tradition-based story songs are often noted for being trimmed back to the bare essentials. It may not be mere coincidence then that this economy of language worked its way into Morrissey’s art.

“My lyrics are lyrics,” he declared, “they are not poetry. Poems have their own music. Lyrics need a melody.” But then he observed, “The first time I gave a reading from Edson [his recently published first novel], I found myself tapping my foot to a 4/4 beat. So I guess the lines can get blurred somewhere.

“When a song comes I just take it down,” he said. “After that, I roll up my sleeves and edit. And I am brutal when it comes to editing myself. But if you try to edit while writing you’ll never finish a song. ...

“I worked on ‘Birches’ for nine years and got nowhere, but I knew there was a song there. Then one afternoon it just came to me and I took it down in 45 minutes with almost no changes.

“Point of view and sense of place are very important. I will experiment with what is the best way to tell a story.”

Morrissey’s publicity presents him as uniquely driven to perfect his songs. “I’m really just passionate about my work,” he said. “I don’t want to look back and say I could’ve done better, I could’ve worked harder.”

Does he have preferred interpretations of his songs? “I don’t get a lot of covers,” he said. “Right now my favorite is Lucy Kaplansky’s version of ‘Love Song/New York,’ though Mark Erelli did a wonderful job on ‘Summer Night.’”

Not long ago, Morrissey lost a friend and kindred musical spirit to death. “I miss [fiddler] Johnny Cunningham every day. It was very difficult to be in the studio without him. And there were Johnny stories throughout the sessions because we all knew and loved him.”

One late-80s disc brought Morrissey especially favorable press. “Standing Eight is what a lot of people call my ‘breakthrough’ album, but I don’t see it that way,” he said. “It’s the first album I did where I called all the shots, primarily because I thought it was going to be my last. I had a three-album deal with Rounder and the first two didn’t sell well. They certainly weren’t jumping up and down about a third. I think Inside, You’ll Never Get to Heaven, and Something I Saw are certainly its equal.

“I’m not sure Rounder is even aware they released Something I Saw,” referring to his latest album of new material. “I’m very proud of that record and I hit the road hard to promote it, but I couldn’t find it in the stores.”

Later came Morrissey’s The Essential Collection (2004). “Rounder wanted an overview of things from all my records,” he recalled. “I think it’s probably a good introduction for someone unfamiliar with my work.”

Many favorites on Essential Collection came out after his Standing Eight milestone. Songs such as “Robert Johnson” (1991), “Cold Cold Night” (1993), “You’ll Never Get to Heaven” (1996), and “Just Before We Lost the War” (2001) are Morrissey classics.

“Letter From Heaven” (1993), his hilarious, upbeat look at death, ought to put grins on many faces.

Recently Morrissey has been working on his next album. “On the new CD,” he said, “I got to work with my old friends: Billy Conway and Dana Colley (from Morphine), Dave Alvin, Cormac McCarthy, Kent Allyn, and Jennifer Kimball. Everybody knew everybody, so it was just a matter of sitting down and playing music once again. It felt great.”

Bradford cannot be far from Morrissey’s New Hampshire home, so it is surprising for him to say, “I’ve only played the Middle Earth once before. My favorite memory is that it was the only gig I took my ancient dog to. She was the perfect musician’s dog; she was deaf. But her sense of smell was pretty good. And somehow she decided to introduce herself to all the patrons who had ordered food.

“At the Middle Earth, people can expect some of my standards, but mostly I’ll be doing songs from the new CD and a couple new ones I’ve never performed before.”

To be first to hear the new material, a visit to the Middle Earth would be just the ticket.

Who: Bill Morrissey
Where: Middle Earth Music Hall, Bradford
When: Friday, Aug. 18, 8:30 p.m.
For more information: www.billmorrissey.net/, www.middle-earth-music.com/