Sarah Morris’ forthcoming album, Here’s To You, is a generous collection of gift songs. Written to family and friends, these songs are alms for our poor hearts, balms for our tenderest parts.
Morris’ fifth album of original material begins with an ending and ends with an introduction. In between, the songs eavesdrop on intimate conversations between partners, lovers, friends, and family. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Dave Mehling, and featuring long-time bandmates Thomas Nordlund, Andrew Foreman, and Lars-Erik Larson, Here’s To You sees Morris explore a more lush, celestial flavor as she sheds some of the country swagger she’s known for. With layers of harmonies and synths orbiting the terra firma of her band’s guitar, bass, and drums, Morris’ clarion voice shines brightly. Recorded over the course of 2022, Here’s To You offers songs for celebration, for remorse, for grief, for steadfast promises – raising a metaphorical glass to the moments that make us who we are.
The title track has us eavesdropping on an intimate long-distance call to an old friend. Morris sings, “Everything’s changing / with subtle shifts and also with grand rearranging.” Written for some of the most important women in her life, “You Are” is about reflecting back someone’s magic when they can’t see it themselves. “Come Back” sounds romantic at first blush, but it’s a love song to her teenage son who is learning to leave and return home in ever-widening concentric circles. “Longest Night” waxes nostalgic about an evening with two friends before an accident, an illness and a pandemic change the world forever. “Something That Holds” is a grown-up love song to her husband about the small ways we belong to each other.
Sarah Morris has a habit of missing the forest. From the day the Minneapolis based singer-songwriter picked up a guitar, armed with the bone-deep memory of her parents’ well-loved record collection and rooted in the storytelling fire of a Mary Chapin Carpenter tune, she’s been too busy crafting love letters to the details of the trees. Sarah’s endearingly honest, expertly penned songs encourage audiences to pull away from the big picture and get caught up in the magic of our everyday minutia, the rainy day ache in her sunlit voice granting us permission to escape into stories at once hauntingly familiar and uniquely her own.
A graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Sarah spent the first years of her career in Nashville, losing herself in the art of writing timeless Americana melodies.
2018 Kerrville New Folk Winner; twice-named Midwest Country Music Organization’s Songwriter of the Year, Sarah Morris aims to document the glorious details of our messy, magical lives. Called a “A bright, clear, brilliant songwriter” (L’Etoile Magazine), Morris wields a keen eye and a captivating voice offering poignant and relatable songs with timeless melodies.
Website: www.sarahmorrismusic.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sarahmorrismusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahmorrismusic
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