charlie Morris

"Bluer Than Thou"

charlie Morris is a Tampa Bay area guitarist, singer and songwriter who has been playing music and writing songs since he was six years old. In the 90's he put together his first blues band and spent several years touring Europe. In 1997, he began recording his latest cD which was first released in 1998.

Bluer Than Thou is Morris' third album and the first to feature all-original songs. The tracks were recorded at Morrisound and common Touch studios in Tampa, and also in charlie's basement. The album is a nice mix of shuffles, slow blues, country pickin' and a little Louisiana spice. The songs, all but one written by Morris, are humorous, heartfelt and sometimes even wise. charlie writes like a man who has been down the road more than a few times. He sings about his lady, a compulsive cleaner, in can't Stop cleanin', " . . she even vacuums the ceiling and irons my socks," he complains. On cold Day, a slow blues with some great B-3, charlie writes, "If pigs had wings, then maybe they could fly. If a camel was a snake, it just might make it through the needle's eye." Morris' warm tenor voice is easy to take and his fluid-drive guitars get solid support from the band, which includes keyboardists Gary Doyle, Kevin Wilder, and Devin Rice.  Montana plays harmonica on a few tracks and Tim Eddy adds sax to one song.

After listening to this album I asked around, but nobody seemed to know much about charlie Morris. His local appearances are fairly rare I hear. I raved on the cD to Rock Bottom who said he wasn't surprised that charlie put out such a good album. "If charlie's involved, it'll be first rate," he said.

You can hear one of the songs from Bluer Than Thou if you pay a visit to charlie's website. That's also the way to get a copy of this fine album.   http://bluespages.com/bluer/

Norman Davis

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