Austere. But in a good way...
11/19/1998
(4 out of 5 stars)
"NORTH is an experience akin to listening to the short stories of Raymond Carver or the novels of Russell Banks (or, for that matter, of Morrissey himself) broken into verse and then sung - in a voice rich with experience and cracked beyond belief - over a gently strummed guitar. Which is to say, in other words, that this isn't background music --- if you're not paying attention here, you're missing something wonderful. It's as though Morrissey has somehow captured the entire experience of northern New England in winter - of lone figures moving slowly through a landscape spare and somehow beautiful - in song. There is warmth here, just as there is humor and joy, but you've got to look a bit to find it.Of course, none of this is meant to imply that Morrissey is all words and no performance - that's far from the truth. If you've never heard his voice, well... it's different - a broken instrument that seems to somehow crack in all the right places. And the tunes that back the words are surprisingly memorable... you might find yourself humming "Night Shift" or "She Moved Through The Fair" for days. All in all, NORTH is a far more spare exercise than albums like NIGHT TRAIN or the New Orleans-influenced YOU'LL NEVER GET TO HEAVEN - but no less worthwhile. "Folk music" simply doesn't get much better than this."
Get ting To Know Small Town New England
handyman | 01/12/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I try to stay clear of dropping name and dredging reminincence BUT, back in the mid 1970's a twenty-something Bill Morrisey was travelling the New England coffee house circuit and occasionally graced the stage of the little coffee house at the little college I went to in southern Maine. Then, as now, Bill's songs and delivery were strikingly unique; an acquired taste perhaps, but one that this listener acquired quite readily.
Aside from some wryly very funny songs, there was the more intense body of melancholy, ironic song vignettes exposing the underbelly of life lived in small town New England. At that time , I simply needed only to walk out the coffeehouse door to see the river, the mill, the church steeple, and encounter some of the charactor types Bill wove in to his songs. Now, living far away, I simply pop a Bill Morrissey CD in the player and I am carried back.
I have copies of most of Bill Morrisey's recordings but,if I was introducing him I think I would reccomend "North" Thematically this album stays right on course. The songs about jobs in the factory and mill now qualify for folklore status, but so be it. New England was invaded by money in the 80's and Bill touches on this gentrification in "My Old Town".
Planning to spend some time touring the back roads of northern New England and looking for a evocative soundtrack? Look no further than Bill Morrissey's "North"
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Track Listings (11) - Disc #1
