Kevin Morby

One Liner: Chilled out folky rock greatness

Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, folk rock

Home: Lubbock!

Poster Position: 
Both Weekends.  Friday.

Thoughts:  Cool!  I like this guy!  A friend of mine and I were talking about concerts the other night and he mentioned that his last show had been Kevin Morby.  And I was like who the hell is Kevin Morby?  He sent me a few tunes and they were excellent stuff!  Nice and chill, his stuff is a whole mood.

He was born in Lubbock, of all places, but then moved around alot before settling in Kansas City.  he started his first band in high school before dropping out and moving to Brooklyn.  He made music with two more bands (Woods and The Babies) before he moved to L.A.  He started releasing solo albums in 2013, and by now has amassed seven of those suckers.  After a few years in L.A., he actually went back to Kansas near where he grew up, and has started dating Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee.  The travelin' man!

In addition to moving around alot, the dude throws out albums pretty frequently too.  Since I have been enjoying these tunes, I'm just going to dig into all of it.

The top cut is a 2016 single "Beautiful Strangers," with 41.4 million streams.

Long track, but it meanders through a few different feels - a Jack Johnson phase, then a Stones bit, and then some piano noodling.  It's got a wonderful vibe to it.  The next song on the single for that track, "No Place to Fall," sounds super like a John Prine song.

His debut, 2013's Harlem River, has a kind of Bon Iver sense to it - spacey, folky indie rock.  His second-most streamed tune is on there, "Harlem River" with 30.6 million streams.

Also a long track (9:15!), but has a cool sound.  Comes on like "Somebody That I Used to Know" but then tosses in those high lonesome "hooos" like its actually a Lord Huron track.  The tune slowly builds in a really nice way.

2014's Still Life has mostly the same sound, maybe a little groovier.  Makes me think of Jose Gonzalez, but with less-intricate guitars.  The big hit from that album was "Parade," with 19.2 million streams. 

 

I wonder why his longest songs are also his most streamed?  That seems like an anomaly.  but it has a cool gentleness to it among that heavy bass line that is cool.  "All of my Life" makes me think of Mac Demarco.

2016 brings us to Singing Saw, and one of my personal favorite songs among these - "I Have Been To The Mountain" makes me think of The Clash's "Guns of Brixton."  12.2 million streams.

Hear that - the bass line that tracks.  Also, that dead dude is a good dancer!  Not very respectful, but a good dancer.  That track is a groove.  "Singing Saw" also gets some tight sounding electric guitar-work that I dig.  

2017's City Music has a great title song that is also the longest tune and also the one with the most streams.  WTF, man.  Sounds almost like a jam song for a lot of it with that little waterfalling guitar lick.  2020's Sundowner is lovely as well, but finally breaks the longest-song-is-streamed-most pattern.  Sometimes he makes me think of Bob Dylan - kind of similar vocal tone that is a little nasal and note-repetetive.  Super low stream count on that album.  Nobody wanted to listen to Kevin during lockdown, apparently.

Finally, the new album is 2022's This is a Photograph, and again, the title song is the bop.  Jangly guitars and propulsive beat just rockin' it out.

Makes me think how I would really like to scan in all of the old photos that I have lying around here in my house.  I've thought for years about needing to get a good scanner and just doing it up.  "This is what I'll miss about being alive" is a great line.  Super good tune, and a good video to go with it.  "Bittersweet, TN" is a nice one too, another that reminds me of Mac Demarco's laid back rock stuff.  "Rock Bottom" is a fun rocker complete with unhinged giggles.  Why doesn't this have a bunch of streams?  Seriously, only two of these tracks have over a million streams - criminally understreamed.

I'd absolutely go check this guy out.