Frank Morey Preview

Frank Morey
Uncommon Ground, Chicago
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Singer-songwriter Frank Morey isn’t from Chicago, but he certainly has ties to the city.

Namely, very good standing with Bob Koester, owner/founder of the legendary Delmark Records. As the story goes, Koester was an audience member at a Morey show in Flagstaff, Arizona and was so impressed by Morey’s performance it led to the Massachusetts native releasing his third record, aptly titled The Delmark Sessions, in 2002 via the Chicago label.

That in mind, the first thing you’ll likely notice about Morey’s music is that it is neither obvious jazz or blues, the two genres most commonly associated with Koester and his label. Elements of both undoubtedly trickle through his songs, but so do honky tonk, folk, and rock. Morey cites Son House, Hank Williams, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, and Tom Waits as his primary influences, and all of them can be heard in one way or another on his latest release, Made In USA, which explains how Morey can play the Chicago Blues Festival *and* the Boston Folk Festival, or how he can tour with legendary bluesman Honeyboy Edwards yet still attract the mellow-and-mild Uncommon Ground crowd. That Made In USA and its 11 whiskey-bent tunes about life, love, damnation, and redemption has no label backing is mind-boggling, especially after he released his last record on a label as iconic as Delmark. We don’t know what happened with Delmark, but Morey’s gravel-gargle howl and gritty roots deserve more exposure than what he can do on his own; someone give this man a record deal ASAP.

Mark McKay also plays.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here to download a sample of Frank Morey’s “Ghosts And Guns.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly