Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"The result is Something I Saw or Thought I Saw (Philo/Rounder), another finely wrought collection that reestablishes Morrissey as one of the best musical storytellers you're ever likely to hear. Rich in evocative detail and description—it's no wonder he writes fiction—the songs unerringly uncover the often tough emotional truths that Morrissey is digging for."
April 13, 2001 - None
"Bill Morrissey has pulled off that rare American feat: a true artistic reawakening in middle age.... [T]he instrumental sound of the new album more than supports Morrissey's words. Working with very old friends, the songwriter produced the album himself, and it's a spare, canny beauty."
April 6, 2001 - Boston Herald
1996
You'll Never Get to Heaven - Billboard Magazine
4 star review
3 1/2 star review
several albums including
Standing Eight and Inside - Rollingstone
Several oustanding reviews, including Bill's book, Edson.
Reviews have been A- and B+ grades - AOLTimeWarner
Review of You'll Never Get to Heaven
Great review--1996 - AOLTimeWarner
Discography
1984--Bill Morrissey
1985--North
1990--Standing Eight
1992--Inside
1993--Friend of Mine
1993--Nighttrain
1996--You'll Never Get to Heaven
1999--Songs of Mississippi John Hurt
2001--Something I Saw or Thought I Saw
2004--Bill Morrissey: The Essential Collection
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Bill Morrissey's astute lyrical gifts and graceful, understated melodies have put him on festival stages across the world; into theatres, concert halls, and coffeehouses; garnered him critical acclaim from magazines, authors, and music peers; and have earned him two Grammy nominations.
Bill Morrissey has created as impressive a body of work as any songwriter today, a collection of finely-honed songs that match his economy of lyric and melody with a writer’s gift for storytelling. His empathetic knack for capturing the harshness and small sadness of the characters in his songs is tempered by his wry sense of humor, such that many of his songs leave the listener with a smile.
Over the course of his long career, two of Bill Morrissey's ten albums have received Grammy nominations and several have earned 4-star reviews in Rolling Stone as well as equal accolades in nearly every other major national publication. Stephen Holden, for the New York Times, wrote, "Mr. Morrissey's songs have the force of poetry...a terseness, precision of detail and a tone of laconic understatement that relate his lyrics to the fiction of writers like Raymond Carver and Richard Ford." It is not surprising that he is also the author of the novel "Edson" (Random House/Alfred A. Knopf 1996) and the recently completed "Imaginary Runner."
On stage, Bill mixes the seriousness and urgency of his songs with a wry, acerbic wit. His often improvised and deadpan monologues and introductions provide a perfect balance to his live shows.
Cutting his teeth on the American country blues of Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Johnson, the pure country of Hank Williams, the Kansas City of Count Basie and Lester Young, and, of course, the New York folk songwriters of the 1960s, Bill digested all this great diversity and found his own unique voice. This is most evident on his current Rounder/Philo release "The Essential Collection", an overview of his recorded work these past twenty years.
Bill Morrissey makes his home in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.
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