Biography
"Like an alt country Led Zeppelin..."
Portland, OR's Drunken Prayer was founded by two southern expatriates: Morgan Christopher Geer from Black Mountain, NC and Miss Audra of Bristol, TN. The couple formed the group wood-shedding on a farm in Northern California.
Their songs are aggressive, eccentric narratives on a bed of soul, country and pop; what Portland, OR's Willamette Week calls, "...brooding ballads and Cash-esque country morbidity." Familiar territory, mainstream it is not.
Morgan has a comfortable and naturally charismatic stage presence. Raised by his mother, a New Orleans folk singer, he elaborates, "My earliest memory is of playing in a sandbox at her feet during a taping of one of her performances on Louisiana Public TV." She sewed the white bespangled jumpsuit he wore for his first public performance, a third grade talent show impersonating Elvis Presley. He sang "Hound Dog" a-cappella and won. Afterward he'd be terrorized by local thugs to "Sing Elvis or suffer". This was Morgan's introduction to show business. In the year 2000 Bloodshot Records released, on their 5th year anniversary compilation, a cover of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise" by a country punk trio in gold leather suits, touring in a 1978 Cadillac hearse out of Asheville, NC. Morgan's Unholy Trio also featured current members of Freakwater and the Reigning Sound.
Miss Audra is a classically trained concert pianist who began her music career when she was 3 in her father's Southern Baptist church in Bristol, TN. Her vast musical background includes musical theater, southern gospel and experimental Electronica, once opening TLC with her Atlanta, GA group Drums and Effects.
Audra is also a prolific visual artist, creating abstract and impressionistic multi-media pieces. As a teenager, Audra taught clogging at Dollywood in Gatlinburg, TN.
What sets Drunken Prayer apart from their country noir counterparts though, is the sense of exuberance and fun in their delivery. You hear it in their recorded work and on stage; their honest, emotional enthusiasm is palpable and infectious. They have a refreshing, self-deprecating and altogether charming on-stage manner that indicates they are very much at home in their performance.
Recently the pair has been joined live by Portland, OR icon, drummer Sam Henry, formerly of the seminal NW punk groups The Wipers and Napalm Beach. The result is the new album, "Drunken Prayer...with Sam Henry". This is an exiting and moving group to hear, all at the top of their game.
In his recent New Yorker article, A Paler Shade of White: How indie rock lost its soul, Sasha Frere-Jones writes "I've spent too many evenings at indie concerts waiting in vain for vigor, for rhythm, for a musical effect that could justify all the preciousness." He goes on to ask "How did rhythm come to be discounted in an art form that was born as a celebration of rhythm's possibilities? Where is the impulse to reach out to an audience, to entertain? "
Mr. Frere-Jones needs look no further than Drunken Prayer.
Instrumentation
Morgan Christopher Geer - guitars, sing
Miss Audra - organ / piano, sing
Impossible without:
Joel Meredith - pedal steel guitar (Blind Pilot, Meredith Brothers Band)
Kubby White - drums (Chuckanut Drive)
Matt Brown - bass (Lotus Isle, Mike Coykendall)
Jose Medeles - percussion (The Breeders, Mike Watt, Money Mark)
Sam Henry - drums (The Wipers, Napalm Beach)
Scott McPherson - percussion (Elliot Smith, M. Ward, Bright Eyes)
David Lipkind - harmonica, guitar (Spigot, I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House)
Keith Richard McCarthy - bass (Jennifer Lynn)
Big Al Hunter - bass (Eels)
Brother Ezra Meredith - guitar, trumpet (Meredith Brothers Band)
Discography
Drunken Prayer (LP self titled, Deer Lodge 2007)
Take a Walk! (single, self released 2008)
Drunken Prayer...with Sam Henry (live ep, Early Grave 2009)
Links
| http://drunkenprayer.com/ |