Ken Will Morton
Kickin' Out the Rungs with the Devil
originally published August 20, 2008
Ken Will Morton
If only every artist could find his own Rara Avis Records to support him, then musicians could go back to being musicians, and this crazy industry would be all the better for it. Maybe then all artists would speak of their craft with the same carefree amicability as local singer-songwriter Ken Will Morton. He has two decades of music experience behind him, and he sees nothing but endless roads and possibilities up ahead.
"Some people say music is a big competition," says Morton. "I don't feel that way. I think you put your art out in the world, and if it's quality stuff, people will connect with it, pass it around and you'll be successful... It's not a race. I'm in no big hurry; just smellin' the roses."
Rara Avis was founded this year by Morton's longtime publicist and manager Michelle Roche as an avenue for releasing his music. With Roche behind him, Morton seems almost passively calm and confident about the direction he's headed. It's a rare find these days to hear an artist who says he feels "no pressure" to learn the new digital marketing game himself. Roche, on the other hand, rattles off Morton's achievements, accolades and future plans with unmatched devotion. It must be a huge relief to have such unwavering support from a label. It hasn't been like that for long.
Two years ago, Morton was tied to Fundamental Records, the label that released King of Coming Around. Although the record was well received by the media (thanks to Roche), the release didn't go as well as planned. Morton doesn't elaborate on the details of his departure from Fundamental, but he says enough to suggest a messy falling out.
"It was a really frustrating experience because no one did what they said they were going to do… That whole experience - signing a contract with a strange company when you think it's not a strange company when you sign it - it did make me more trepidatious about signing something else."
That explains why it has taken so long for Morton to release the fantastically energetic live rock album Devil in Me, which was recorded back in 2006 with his old backing band the Wholly Ghosts. Although that lineup has since, in Morton's words, "imploded," the record successfully captures a great live band at its prime.
"Both Jason Bradberry and Brandon Hicks are such killer musicians in their own right, they inspired me," says Morton. The album was recorded live in Hicks' basement, and although the budget was tight and the resources limited, Hicks' recording ingenuity got the band "a big sound for very little dollars."
Devil in Me has lots of powerful, chugging guitars and Morton's distinct Southern rasp leans more toward Springsteen or Petty than Dylan on the spectrum of classic American sounds that he's always scaled gracefully. For a live record, the production is impressively clean; stand-out tracks "Devil in Me," "Faith Healer" and "Alcohol" even gleam with the possibility of radio success. It wouldn't be a surprise if we heard these songs popping up in films or television either, as Morton has already had some success with licensing in the past. Just in April, his track "Oh Lord" off of King of Coming Around was featured prominently on the Discovery Channel show "The Deadliest Catch."
What's more, Devil in Me isn't all Morton has to show for the past two years. It wasn't enough to make a comeback with just one record - Rara Avis also put out another full-length this summer called Kickin' Out the Rungs. While it is somewhat unconventional to put out two albums at once, these dual releases do serve to illustrate the true scope and diversity of Morton's songwriting ability. Where Devil in Me rocks, Kickin' Out the Rungs rolls. In the absence of his Wholly Ghosts, Morton digs deep into his folky soul and unearths 10 organic tunes that are full of warmth and disarming sincerity. Plus, Morton admits, going solo isn't such a bad financial move these days.
"I'm really glad that I've got the skills I have to entertain by myself with gas prices as they are... you can eat and travel for one a lot cheaper than for four of five."
Morton is the sole signing of Rara Avis for now, but Roche says she is just testing the waters with these two releases and hopes to work with other artists she is "genuinely a fan of." With that kind of support, no artist is really solo, anyway.
You can get a preview of Morton's live show by tuning into 90.5FM WUOG on Thursday, Aug. 21 for his performance on "Live in the Lobby." If you can't make it out this weekend, you can also catch Morton at the Terrapin brewery on Thursday, Aug. 28.
WHO: Ken Will Morton
WHERE: Rye Bar
WHEN: Saturday, August 23
HOW MUCH: FREE!
From Boys to Men
Oh No! Oh My! Gets Serious about Silliness
originally published August 20, 2008
Oh No! Oh My!
As the cliché goes: boys will be boys. The youthful candor, the "anything that can happen" aesthetic and the inevitable silliness that comes with the Y chromosome are all on display in Oh No! Oh My!’s music. The carefree dance lyrics and sing-song melodies about “riding bikes into the sea” seem to recall those endless summer days of yore, before work and the real world got in the way.
But to judge Oh No! Oh My! as merely a comedy act simply because of the band’s lighthearted nature is selling the artists short. In fact, on the upcoming EP Between the Devil and the Sea, the band starts the laborious task of dialing back the silly and upping the ante on creating better songs.
“I don’t think [the new EP] is more serious, but I do think we are taking it more seriously. It’s not that we weren’t taking it seriously [before], it’s that we are taking it more seriously now,” says multi-instrumentalist Tim Regan.
Oh No! Oh My!’s newfound focus isn’t quite the startling stylistic shift that happens when bands decide to make a career out of performing, but rather a honing of the group's collective abilities. One listen to the first available track from Between the Devil and the Sea (“The Party Punch”) shows a band crafting some of the most bouncy indie pop this side of Elephant 6. According to Regan, this is the sound of Oh No! Oh My! hitting its stride, and the boys aren’t content following a songwriting formula.
“We’ve been [a band] for a while, and we’re getting used to how everybody works together, and now we want to take everything to the next level. All of the stuff that we’ve put out so far was quality, and now we’re just trying to make sure that we’re progressing instead of staying in the same place,” says Regan.
That progression is paramount in the development of Oh No! Oh My! No longer can it only be the band with the silly song titles. Instead, it has to be the band with silly song titles and good songs to back them up. It’s a subtle progression, but a progression, indeed.
“Now we have a conscious motive to take things seriously; we want to evolve,” says Regan. That evolution began to take hold in 2007 when Oh No! Oh My! hit the road for much of the year. It also gave the group a chance to apply its newfound focus to the new material. What the band learned was invaluable, streamlining its live performances and cutting down on instrument switching between songs (this sounds like a minor detail, but every member of the band shares multi-instrumentalist duties). What Oh No! Oh My! has become since its tour is a well oiled machine - both onstage and off.
“This is the first time we’ve all gotten together and had a chance to play the songs on the road for a year so that we could see what these songs could do,” says Regan.
That time spent slugging it out on the road has lead to the recording of Between the Devil and the Sea. Regan hopes the EP can build on the buzz of Oh No! Oh My!’s previous album, but with a few welcome changes sonically.
“Now we have more time to make these songs huge. Before we were working on a four-track with three microphones - and now we are in the studio - and it gives us an opportunity to make the songs sound better,” says Regan.
But with extra time on their collective hands, a new creative focus and more than three microphones, is Oh No! Oh My! worried about losing its quirky homemade charm and becoming just another band?
Regan doesn't seem concerned. “It doesn’t benefit us to worry about that."
WHO: Royal Bangs, Antenna Shoes, Oh No! Oh My!
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Tuesday August 26
HOW MUCH: $5 (21+), $7 (18+)
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