Local Review: John Elwood Morgan – New Skies

John Elwood Morgan
New Skies
Hey Pilgrim Records
Street: 11.25
John Elwood Morgan = Willi Carlisle + Avett Brothers + Dead Man Winter

Folk music is a difficult subject to traverse; it’s a large and unwieldy genre that is specifically about being unspecific. The genre is practically ubiquitous, but the breadth of it is so wide that it’s impossible to see its boundaries. In recent decades, folk has been taken in further into the pop music realm than ever before, but that has only seemed to bolster its ability to reach people ready to embrace it in any diluted form it may take. John Elwood Morgan has a incredibly well-balanced approach that will appeal to both traditional folkies and their mainstream counterparts.

There’s a specific quality to some performers that pull you in, put you at ease and make the experience of listening to them a personal one—John Elwood Morgan has it in spades. He makes you feel as though you’re listening to a friend sing and strum in your backyard over a few beers. Recorded in Nashville, there’s a well-honed, high caliber quality to this four-song EP that comes across with its careful thoughtfulness. The eponymous opening track is the musical equivalent of a friend grabbing you by your hand and pulling you out of life’s darker places. Pulling you forward to see “New Skies,” Morgan does this without the expected saccharine, and the song glides along and without realizing it, the jaunty rhythm and playful performance lifting you to a brighter psychological perch. According to his Bandcamp page, Morgan wrote these tunes while moving back and forth across the country over the last few years, and the song “I Meant Well” is drenched in that feeling of movement and restlessness. The folk singer’s version of a bluesy rocker, it’s a great change of pace from the more laid back tone of the other tracks. 

“They come along like the lyrics of a song you’ve never heard, yet somehow seem familiar, they greet you like an old friend that you didn’t know you had.” These lyrics from “Linger” somehow encapsulate the experience I’m having while listening, keeping my attention present and interested; music that makes me wanderlust like this always finds a place in my heart. Morgan has a way of showing songcraft with subtlety and restraint, relying on forging a connection with his audience rather than demanding it. That being said, his originality isn’t obvious, but everything is so well done that taking the time to find out what sets this singer-songwriter apart is a pleasure. “Somewhere over yonder, is a place we’ve never been, so let’s ride ride ride again,” are the lyrics to the chorus to the last song of the album, “Ride Boldly Ride,” which is close to a full-blown bluegrass banger that adds another shade to the roots music watercolor Morgan is concocting. Here again is the theme of movement and adventure woven throughout these songs—it’s introspective while looking outwards, pointing yourself at the horizon while keeping connected to where you have been. These slight shifts in style from blues to bluegrass create a more full palette available to Morgan as he moves forward, and where’s he’s able to go in just these four tracks shows his artistry. Bluegrass especially is a tough nut to crack. Its unique sound makes insincere attempts glaringly obvious, but happily this is not the case for New Skies. The EP shows a polished mix of roots music genres that Morgan taps into while still remaining something all his own, his lyrics standing out as a wonderful expression of storytelling. When presented on the beautiful bed of dynamic instrumentation and arrangement, the words come to life. –James Orme

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