FRANK MOREY: The Delmark Sessions

Frank Morey

The Delmark Sessions

© 2002 Frank Morey (038153076429)

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Brilliant.

tracks

1 I Know (The Woman's Goin to Break My Heart
2 Luci
3 New Orleans
4 Let It Roll
5 Every Night I Have The Same Damn Dream
6 Murder Bound
7 Saturday Night
8 Dry Up
9 Barmaid, Barmaid
10 Baby, Don't Leave a Light On
11 Uncle Lefty's Lament
12 Blame It On The Devil
13 Moonlight (On A Cloudy Saturday Night)
14 Red Brick Town
15 Goin' Down Kickin'
16 Hey-Hey Baby
17 Lorraine
18 Wishing Well
19 Stack O' Lee
20 Willow

notes

Morey doesn't know it, but he's about to create the new Urban American Folk Music!
It's folk music like blues was the folk music of postwar Chicago.

By Dave Palmeter
WUMB 91.9 FM Radio

Folk Music has gotten a bad reputation. Much of it is boring. So whether you think of it as overly artful recreations of medieval ballads or the overly thoughtful pondering of a poet, this ain't that kind of folk music. It has more to do with songs from the jukebox that made you rock. It's folk music like jazz was the folk music of Storyville. It's folk music like blues was the folk music of postwar Chicago. It's folk music like rap is the folk music of gangsta wannabes. This is the folk music of post industrial mill town America, of the people displaced when downtown became gentrified. This is grab-a-boilermaker-after-work folk music. This is put-down-the-pool-cue-and-listen folk music, music you can dance to and even listen to the words. And you should. Morey doesn't know it, but he's about to create the new Urban American Folk Music!

This is blues, jazz, rock and, if you insist, folk It's Wolf and Waits, Louie and Leonard (Cohen.that is). It's thumping bass that could be behind Charlie Feathers or J.B. Lenoir. It's a trap set from a burlesque theater and it's the kid who wanted to sound like Beiderbecke and now he does. It's working men and working girls just trying to get by. Its sound is as much the river, as the mills it used to power. It's Route 66 taking you west and Old Route One bringing you up the coast and home. It's fireworks on Chinese New Year and it's an old Western movie. And it's literate. (After all, Lowell is also the home of Jack Kerouac.) Literate, sure. But not enough to get in the way of a good time.

Morey's on the street again, before the show. Foot up on a thrift shop suitcase that carries the tools of his trade, harmonicas, strings, picks.. Mill buildings in the near distance, "Stella Kerouac lived over there, you know." He points. Everybody knows Frank. He's written their life story. Mothers introduce their daughters. An old man takes a boxer's crouch and dares him to go a few rounds.

He pulls the leather porkpie hat over his eyes, grumbles at the guys and then it starts in a torrent, an old Howlin' Wolf tune, the harmonica distorting just right to the mix.. Later he'll sing, "Careless Love" while mindlessly caressing the back of his guitar laid flat on his lap. Then an obscure Leonard Cohen tune. In between it'll be all original. One of a kind music, that rocks. Scott beats on Tub's bass strings during a version of "Mojo" that brings the house down. Cool 'em off with a Western ballad Then they're gone.... Maybe just back to Lowell, Maybe down Route 66. Maybe to Chicago to make a record in a studio where, if you're real quiet you can still hear the echoes of Big Joe Williams J.B. Hutto and Little Milton. Off to document this new urban American folk music!

reviews

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  • My Latest Favorite
    author: Eliza

    This is definitley the best Frank Morey CD. It's not perfect, but my favorites from the CD make up some of the best original music I've heard in the last few years. Old and fresh at the same time.

  • Greatness
    author: Stever

    There's nothing more to say

  • Best Frank Morey CD to date...
    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. Fun stuff that is recommended. The "Delmark Sessions" CD is probably the best of the lot to date by Frank Morey. It contains some highlight tracks from their previous two albums along with some new material. If you can only buy one, start here.

  • Part Howlin Wolf, part Memphis Jug Band, part Carl Perkins, but in the end, all
    author: Kevin Convey

    FRANK MOREY `The Delmark Sessions'(Delmark) The first album from Lowell-based singer-songwriter-demimonde poet Frank Morey played like a rag-and-bone shop homage to formative influences Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. Now recording for the legendary Chicago blues-and-jazz label Delmark, Morey bores deeper into his blues, folk and rockabilly roots, tunneling out with a set that's part Howlin' Wolf, part Memphis Jug Band, part Carl Perkins, but in the end, all Morey. Singing in a voice hoarse from competing with the din of a thousand barrooms, Morey spins tales from the back streets of the American dream, peopled with lushes, the lonely and the lost. With Scott Pittman drumming like death knocking at the door, Morey has made an album that's rootsy yet thoroughly individual. KEVIN R. CONVEY Boston Herald 12/28/03

  • Frank Morey continues to define his niche in today's indie music scene
    author: Jack Gubanc

    This album is a continuation of Frank's committment to interpreting the tradition of the great black bluesman. As they did, Frank's emphasis is on lyrics and delivery with instrumentation kept to a supporting minimum. Frank does as good a job of being a bluesman as any white singer performing today and his band believes in the philosopy that "tight is right!" As Lightnin' Hopkins used to say about great blues "Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" Play the blues Frank, play the blues!

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