FRANK MOREY: Father John's Medicine

Frank Morey

Father John's Medicine

© 2000 Indigo hamlet (805310000128)

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street themed, devil tormented, root oriented, music led by a smokers cough and acoustic guitar (dark, moody, smart, dirty)

tracks

1 Chinese New Year
2 Murder in Boston
3 Uncle Lefty's Lament
4 Shiver Me Timbers
5 Moonlight (on a Cloudy Saturday Night)
6 Catholic School Girls
7 Jesus Says
8 My Baby's Havin' My Baby
9 I Should Have Heard It Coming, a Long Time Ago
10 Dry Town
11 Devil's Train
12 You Got Heaven (by a Balloon String)
13 How Sweet It Is
14 Snowing in Lowell

notes

There is a type of singer-songwriter who specializes in odes to the dark urban underbelly of America.

It has its roots in the cross-fertilization between the beats and the folkies dating back to the 1950s, when poets hung with hoboes in trainyards and college dropouts hitchhiked lonesome two-lanes to the coffehouses of Greenwich Village.

"Cocaine" by Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan's cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave I Kept Clean" established the prototype.

Tim Hardin, Lou Reed and Tom Waits kept the thread going as the sixties became the seventies.

A Massachusetts performer named Frank Morey has been handed the torch and is handling it well.

He ranks among the greats in the lineage by virtue of his voice.

The best of this type of singer-songwriter has always had a smoke-frayed, booze-worn quality that has sounded perfectly natural.

Many a second-stringer has suffered from the fatal flaw of contriving, rather than actually having, such a voice.

Not so Mr. Morey.

He has clearly spent much time curing that rusty throat of his in things that may comfort the psyche but rub the tissues like sandpaper.

The instrumentation of this album is unique and provides a slight nod to nostalgia.

There are lonesome little 1930s corner-café flourishes of muted trumpet and clarinet.

Accordion compliments the acoustic guitar in appropriate places.

Morey's lyrics cover a lot of the same ground as those of his predecessors, but with a more notable peppering of religious imagery.

In "Uncle Lefty's Lament," he "know[s] the Good Lord is watching over [him]." The song is anchored by a recurring chorus line: "I look forward to lay my heavy head down in heaven." Four of the songs have such imagery in the titles: "Catholic School Girls," "Jesus Says," "Devil Train," and "You Got Heaven (By A Balloon String)." It would be interesting to see this matter pursued in an interview.

Morey's press kit indicates that things are happening for him in the Northeast.

He has the chops and the seasoned insights to keep the momentum going.

In the meantime, we have this record to befriend us when we lift that last glass of Old Granddad at 3 AM on Sunday morning.

(from Barney Quick indie-music.com)

reviews

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  • hypnotic sounds and lyrics
    author: jay in tucson

    this was the only one available at ordering time, but i'm waiting for the back orders to arrive for the rest of his albums. i listen to this one softly, loudly, on my bike, while working out, and just in the dark picturing the themes of these songs.

  • author: Patrick Keogan

    Everybody likes music, however to some, like myself-music is the most central and sensitive part of their being. Few artisis throughout the ages have been able to enter my ears and fulfill my soul like Frank Morey has. For his timeless creations I thank him. Now give a listen, and if somehow you dont like it-jump off a bridge.

  • AWESOME!
    author: siobhan

    this CD is one of the only ones i can play from beginning to end, and over again, not only without getting tired of it, but actually finding more to like about it each time...

  • Solid place to start...
    author: Bart

    Gritty blues that is minimal in its approach yet it never gets boring. Frank's vocals are like a cleaner yet still gravely Tom Waits. The lyrics are a highlight of the entire package. The "Delmark Sessions" CD is probably the best of the lot to date by Frank Morey though. It contains some of the highlight tracks from this CD (such as "Uncle Lefty's Lament" and "Moonlight"). This CD doesn't stand up as well to the other two CD's, but it still a worthy purchase.

  • ISWM INDIE PICK OF THE MONTH
    author: Independent Songwriter Magazine

    As with previous albums, Frank Morey delivers his songs with incredible authenticity; taking on the character of the people in his stories. That gruff and sexy voice openly analyzes motivations like that of a 1940's movie detective. Although probably not intentional, Frank Morey's vocal interpretation of his lyrics; well, it sounds so utterly lonesome. There's something that pulls you in to that realm of hollow victory called life. Fascinating.

  • Frank Morey offers best `Medicine' for blues
    author: Kevin R. Convey Boston Herald

    Half beat, half beaten down, Lowell based singer/songwriter Frank Morey is the Pavarotti of the demimonde. An obvious disciple of Tom Waits - though less self-consciously literary - and a child of Kerouac by proximity, [Frank Morey] wraps his gutter rhymes in arrangements that veer from coffeehouse blues to Salvation Army brass. Wherever he takes his listeners, his stark imagery and bitter yet compassionate humor guarantees a memorable journey.

  • This Cat is for Real !
    author: Tom Wirtanen

    I've been on stage with this man, and believe me, he is as real as it gets. This realism permeates the CD, but he is not trying to be Tom Waits or anyone else. This is Frank Morey at his outstanding best, and he will be as surprised to see this review as you are !

  • doing something familiar but doing it in a highly original way.
    author: Midwest Record Recap - Chris Spector

    We frequently have problems with folksingers that are ‘in the tradition’ since we have access to far superior originals. Morey sneaks in the back door like young Tom Waits doing something familiar but doing it in a highly original way. Happening in the northeast, Morey is in the classic early 60’s folkie mode, but he does it his way without giving us heaping portions of pre-folk boom reverence. Fun genre stuff for young and old that have a hankering for the form.

  • SONG POET
    author: Hugh Blumenfeld Fall 2000 Cd Harvest

    well conceived and executed, musically and lyrically rich.

  • Real Life Stories and Vignettes
    author: Jack Gubanc

    Frank Morey's songs are about life--seamy and dark as it may be. His accompaniment is sparse, but appropriate and professional. His voice does have a whiskey soaked, three packs of Lucky Strikes a day quality to it that enhances his material. A true troubador or teller of life's stories music always has an unpolished quality to his songs and delivery for he is capturing a moment or an experience that he lived or witnessed. This is a fine album that gets better with repeated listening. Buy this album!

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