RUSSELL Morris’ career in the 1960s was one which encompassed the sounds of Australian rock.
Almost four decades later and Morris has come full circle, now producing the music that he first fell in love with – blues and roots – which he will bring to the Ravenswood Hotel later this month.
“I didn’t think Sharkmouth and Van Diemen’s Land would ever go as well as they did,” he said. “When I got back into my music I asked myself why I started in the first place and that was blues music. I love the blues and I love Australian stories. That’s why I did it; not necessarily for commercial success.”
It all started with a photo of Thomas Archer, a petty criminal and conman in the early 1900s.
Morris was drawn to the photo and the story behind it and subsequently created his Australian style of blues.
“It was as if he was telling me: ‘Don’t write about Mississippi or New Orleans – you’re not American,” Morris said. “People do relate to the Australian songs and I continued to do it.”
Despite struggling to find record companies to record his first blues album, Sharkmouth, it eventually proved to be a great career move for Morris.
It won Morris his first ever ARIA award and was described by The Australian as “one of the biggest surprises of the domestic music front.”
“The album was released in October 2013 and it didn’t make the charts until [the following] February,” he said. “No one really looked at it. It was weird that all of sudden it picked up.”
Van Diemen’s Land – which is still in the iTunes’ top ten blues albums almost a year after its release – followed the first release’s success, picking up Album of the Year at the blues-dedicated Chain Awards.
His third blues album, which is due to be released sometime this year, is set to follow the same pattern of telling Australian stories.
“This next one will be focusing on the red dirt,” Morris said. “I can’t do this album without the inclusion of the Aboriginal people – the first Australians. And there is also this one Western Australian convict which I was thinking about putting on the album but I don’t want to mention his name just in case he doesn’t make it.”
Morris will be at the Ravenswood Hotel on March 13.
For more information go to ravenswoodhotel.com.au
