Sam Morrow – Southern Boogie
Copaco Records
9 tracks – 35 minutes
Sam Morrow was born and raised in Austin, Texas, but moved to California as a young adult where he obtained sobriety and started playing Americana and roots style music. He released his first album, Ephemeral, in 2014. He returned to Texas in 2023 and ultimately moved to Nashville where he made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. The shift back to Texas influenced him to want to develop a harder edged, high-energy sound. With this new release, his sixth album, he leans heavily into Texas-bred southern rock. Nine original songs burst out demanding to be played loud on this robust outing.
Sam is joined by Matt Hubbard on keys, Bryan McGrath on drums, John Michael Schoepf on bass, Joseph Wullard on sax, and an array of guitarists – Ricky Ray Jackson, Damon Atkins, Eli Wulfmeier, and Leroy Powell. Tameca Jones and Paige Plaisance provide backing vocals.
The album opens with “Cruisin'” with the slide guitar driving a boogie and telling about his woman who says “She don’t like my money. She loves to tell me no. She don’t like my band, she says we got no soul. She don’t let me drink my whiskey.” “She got me walking that line”. But he will go “cruisin’ with or without you”. On “Lucretia” he is “looking for a good place to fall apart, between her arms is a good place to start.” as he continues to describe his effort to move on from the rut he is in in an all-out rocker with a country tinged vocal. He declares “Make it up as I move along. Different lines, same damn song, the takeaway from every mistake. Them “Hard Lessons” get easier to take.”
He runs through the women that he has been involved with noting that “I’ve been traveling so long. I’ve been wasting my songs, been blind to all the signs. Them “South Texas Women” they always on my mind”. “In The Bag” continues his story of trying to find a change explaining, “I been wasting time with a shiny dime and some polished steel. I’ve been holding onto something stronger than I feel.” He describes a “Saturday Night” outing with a driving beat “Short skirt, cheap flirt. Don’t play me no disco dirt. Pabst Blue Ribbon, outlaw women wishin’ they was in my position. ” “Ain’t Trying to fight unless you want to step outside.”
He declares “Oh “Juanita”, you left me black and blue. Lately, I been feeling I ain’t no thing to you”. He slows thing s down again with the country tinged “Put It in a Song”. He says “I got gas in the tank and amphetamine for the road. Losing my voice for the sake of rock and roll. Bad Habits, bad women, never staying too long. Don’t get hung on them done ya wrongs. Go on put it in a song.” He closes out with a powerful rocker “Wedding Ring” as he tells her “I don’t care what your daddy say, I’m gonna make you mine someday. Cross my heart this ain’t a fling, I’m gonna buy you a wedding ring”. as he begs her “Please don’t go”.
The album shifts from southern rock with blues and country touches to a harder rock sound. I think of modern rock equivalents such as Robert Jon and the Wreck and Blackberry Smoke with touches of the Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker thrown in. Sam shows delivers a wide vocal range across the powering guitar driven songs.
