I was talking. Sorry, I was done. Good podcast, etiquette. But uh...
Hello and welcome to WNC Original Music Episode 139, the Motorola cell phone episode. This is the first episode of 2022 and I can think of no better guess than Carrie Morrison to start us off for this year. Carrie is a singer-songwriter from Brevard, North Carolina, primarily plays the keyboard and she'll be joined for most of the songs on this episode by members of her trio, Andrew Thalston and Jamie Lee Bennett. The live versions of these songs were recorded at Crushleaf Studios in Brevard and we certainly thank them for their cooperation.
You'll notice in addition to the interview I did with Carrie over Zoom, there's also a couple of sections where she and Andrew and Jamie Lee are talking in the studio. I hope you enjoy that. You can find Carrie's music at karaemorrisonmusic.com and make sure to look out for her most recent album under the name The Never Where Sisters produced by Andrew Thalston and Daniel Nisbet and featuring Jamie Lee Bennett. And now here is Carrie Morrison.
I think this was the first song that I heard of Carrie Morrison's. When I worked at WTCQ, Terry Wettin was running the local show and yeah, didn't he produce this for you? He did. Okay.
That's why I heard that WTCQ and I remember being like, wow this is a really good song. And I saw you at that local artist showcase that they did at Mose BBQ. Wow, she's really good. That was a big deal.
Yeah. That is an oldie but goodie. That was written in 2009 and it was just about rain at first because we had a record rainfall in November in Henderson County that worked at East High at that time. And there was literally water running down the walls in several classrooms because as you know our facilities are not very up to date in the public school system.
There was water coming down the walls and leaking through the roofs and people were trying to fix it and they were stomping around on the roof. I remember that. That was that November of 2009 and that's when I wrote that song and it just came really, really easily and really fast almost like it was channeled. And then when I went back and listened to it I was like, oh, this is a little bit deeper than just rain.
Have some deeper emotions. Tell me a little bit about the trio that is in this podcast here. So I'm playing with Andrew Selston and Jamie Lee Bennett. They're both good friends of mine and Jamie Lee is a cellist and flutist and Andrew is, well he plays at Hado doesn't instruments extremely well but mainly he's known as a guitarist and vocalist and we've just created an acoustic trio with a cello guitar and piano and vocals and we're developing it not so much as supporting me but we're kind of trying to make it a true trio.
We're the two of them are doing more vocals and Andrew's doing some of his original songs as well but definitely my favorite project to date because they just are wonderful musicians and wonderful people. They're like family. Awesome. How long have you been playing together?
Has it really? Not very long I've been playing with Jamie Lee for two years. I fell in love with her when I saw her with Hope Griffin a whole bunch of times and then she and I started playing together in 2019 and Andrew and I have been working together in some capacity since about 2015. He's helped promote me.
He's produced my music. He's played shows with me. We do an acoustic duo that's a lot of fun but as a trio we really started to gel not even a year ago but I played with him and I played with her and we put a show together the three of us in April last year and it just really clicked so we wanted to do more. Do promotion for the podcast now make sure to go back and listen to the Hope Griffin duo with Hope Griffin and Jamie Lee.
There are four episodes in the archive so make sure to check that out. That's for the audience. Awesome. Yes I love it.
Open Jamie Lee. What the is people say it's political or they think it's political. It's kind of political but it's really just a reaction to the primary in 2016. We all know what that was like and what was going on and it was just kind of like wait what?
It really is more about when things don't turn out the way you planned which is like all the time. It's a little teeny bit political and my dad said he wants me to write a musical called Trump the Musical and that song should be featured in the musical. I said well that's not really my plan but I'm glad you liked this song dad. It's not really about Trump but it could be.
I don't know. It's about the primary. I thought maybe it was about Elizabeth Warren not getting the nomination that was upsetting to the country I think. It was upsetting in a way if you were looking at a certain array of candidates and another array of candidates and then looking at people who had dropped out that you were excited about and then Martin O'Malley.
That was that's when people said who the who the who the is Martin O'Malley and was he running against these other people that you've heard of. It's like who the ellipsis that question mark which is kind of like the song what the ellipsis that question mark but they wouldn't let me put that on the CD when I was arranging the printing so I just put what the I just want to show up my deep knowledge of the 2016 primary. Oh no definitely it was it was written before the Elizabeth Warren thing so it was really I guess it was March 2016 the election being in November 2016 so there was. So you knew something about it.
I had a feeling I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach but it was also just kind of a fun song I needed a reprieve from my really sad balance when I was writing at the time which I'm always working on those but it's definitely got a little bit of a I think a little bit of a motel influence which my parents are really into so I grew up with a lot of that so it was just more of a fun song and of course cynical too. I like putting some percussion behind it on the recording. We'll see. Do it.
Well the percussion was recorded when I recorded it it was River Gogarian to the percussion so he did what we call the classic 90s intro. Like that he said oh so 90s. Yeah okay what everybody loves that. Yeah.
That sounds like I mean that sounds like get off my cloud I think that's maybe 60s. Okay maybe it might be yeah it might be 60s it might be black crows when you start playing music. I was seven and I took piano lessons and learned the scales and the chords. And then as I grew up into a young upstart, I want to be a musician.
I got this wonderful teacher named Linda Bader and she taught me how to play improvisationally because she realized I could play by ear. I'm a terrible sight reader. I know what the notes are, but I'm not fast and not a good sight reader, but she saw that I could imitate. And I understood intervals without anyone explaining it, I guess.
So she just taught me some left hand techniques like arpeggios, alberty bass, which I don't know if you know what that is. It's just a certain chord structure that you play in your left hand to accompany the right hand melody, but she just taught me all these techniques and then taught me how to do them in different keys. So if she said play this melody but play a CRPGO underneath it, I could just do that. And she helped me develop that.
Then I stepped away from her in high school thinking I should learn from a classical teacher, a traditional teacher, and that lasted about six months and then I went back to Linda. She had a huge influence on me. Was she mad at you? Did she?
No, she's the sweetest angelic lady. She's still alive and she wrote me a nice letter when I released my CD. When I released my full length CD, Miles and Miles, she wrote me a really sweet letter because my mom bought a bunch of CDs and sent them to every company, which is really sweet. How do you do that?
How do you do that? How do you do that? It's totally an accident. It has to be written and the muse comes and visits and she smacks you on the head.
How much do you have to pay her? Right it. How much do you have to pay her? That's a good question.
During quarantine, I think I doubled the amount. It still didn't really help. You wrote 200 songs in quarantine. I wrote two.
A little lot. But no, it's just happens. The ones that are probably melodically the strongest are already written. They just take shape in my head and then I just add the words.
That one was completely, I think completely written except for maybe the pre-course as soon as I got home from my second time in Scotland. And then when I went to my third time in Scotland, we were driving on the Isle of Mull with this little tour group and it sort of got out into the group that I was a singer-songwriter. Oh, do you have your CD? Why yes?
Yes, I do. I keep it in my hiking pack. Thank you so much. I'm not going to put it in the van at the CD player.
So we were listening to this song, driving around the coast on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. That was one of the last experiences of my life. Isn't that the mole of contire? That's not it.
You go to that to get to this. I saw the mole of contire. Nice. Yeah.
There will be more of that. I was like 45 years old before I knew that wasn't the mule of contire. Well, if a Scottish person says that you may not come out differently. The next song is off of the new EP, The Never Wear Sisters, and it's called Gone Too Long.
Away. Inspired by Bonnie Scotland. I've been there three times and this was after the second time I came home and it was just there in my head. It's a sea chancy and it's about Scotland, but it doesn't mention the word Scotland at all.
It says, Caledonia, which is the Roman word for Scotland, which a lot of Scottish people would be like, oh, why are you using that word? But it's so pretty when you sing at Caledonia. It's just it rolls off the tongue. And Judy McLean has a song called Caledonia and he is the unofficial songwriter or official, I guess, songwriter of Scotland.
It was just a reminder of the islands and the western islands, the Hebrides, and it's just, I don't know, I love Scotland so much. I'm Morrison. Morrison's come from the Isle of Louis. We're a little bit Viking, a little bit Kelt from way back, like hundreds and hundreds of years.
So I've always been inspired by that place. So that's what it's about. B.B. King had a song called Caledonia.
I think he might be Scottish. Yes. I don't think it's about Scotland. I think it's about a woman.
It's about a hard-headed woman, yeah. It's about a hard-headed woman. That's a great song. Yeah.
Caledonia. Caledonia. Yeah. Don't think too much of it.
I might have to pay a roll to hear something. I won't. That's why I didn't sing the word. Oh, yeah.
Because I don't remember the words. It's just because I was protecting you from your outlines. Thank you. You're welcome.
You've been to Scotland how many times? Three times. Three times. Yes.
If I go to Scotland, what should I do there? You should go to Ilupside and just stand and look around and marvel at it because it's the best of the mountains in the ocean and it's all volcanic land. Have you ever seen the movie Prometheus? Sounds familiar.
Oh, is that the alien prequel? Yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah.
I've seen it. The alien prequel. And then Stardust, the movie Stardust. I don't think so.
Based on a Neil Gaiman novel, Michelle Pfeiffer, was in it. That was on there. Oh, have you seen Highlander? I saw the first island of the Earth.
The first one with Chris Rolambert, John Connery. That was filmed on Skye. Oh, okay. So it's just breathtakingly beautiful.
Go to Ilupside, go to Edinburgh and just go to a lot of pubs and listen to a lot of music and keep that out of you. If I go to Scotland, do enough people there to speak English that I could get by? Oh, absolutely. Oh, okay.
English is the main language. It is? Oh, okay. Yeah.
Some of the remotages. Well, they do. They do. But in just the really, really remote places.
Yeah. I was really just making a joke because I know they speak in this book. I have seen, I saw a movie with time. I just did it with Gaelic.
Yeah. I saw a movie with time that was filmed in Scotland. I was a Scottish Scot, whatever they come to. And they had subtitles, even though they were speaking English, because you couldn't understand anything they said.
So they, they had subtitles. That was interesting. Yes. I still have to have that.
My husband is English and he used to work in Scotland. So he makes fun of me that I can't understand the dialects all the time. I mean, some of the dialects you can and some are very, very quick. But I make fun of him when he can't understand someone from say, Edneyville.
You know, he's like, wait, what is he saying? Like, you did not understand that. Are you kidding me? He doesn't understand what yens means.
I mean, come on, guy. No, we're you. Yeah. Or might could or bad, say.
Yeah, I want to go. There's a lot of there's a lot of coliculism. He actually doesn't understand. It's pretty funny.
One thing that I'm from Eastern North Carolina and one thing that even threw me off and I'm from like rural Eastern North Carolina where you can't say rural. But when people say, I don't care to do that. Yes. And Eastern, I mean, I don't, I don't, I would rather not do it.
And here it means I don't, I don't mind. Don't mind. Yeah. And he says, I don't care to.
And he's like, wait, oh, you don't want, you don't want to. Oh, should I find? No, no, I'll do it. Like he really didn't understand that.
I'd explain that to him. And still catches his thumbs. And then there's people that aren't from here and you're like, okay, are you using that? What, what, just don't even say that.
Just tell me straight up or you want to do it or not. Yes or no? Yeah. With him, maybe passive aggressive slash.
Could be an obtuse. Slash super friendly. Yeah. That's, well, that's southern.
You know, bless your heart, Ron. More from Carrie Morrison in just a moment. I'd love to remind you you can find her music at karaimorzenmusic.com. And also in case you didn't notice, I didn't notice it in with the parts with talking into the studio and then the zoom interview.
I didn't really differentiate between those two. It just goes from one to the other. I figure you guys are mature. You can understand what's going on.
I have confidence in you. Hi, my name's Mitzi Mueller from Wolf Willow. And I'm here to say that our new single, All I Can Say, is out now on all streaming platforms. We sure do hope you like it.
And we love you very much. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast. That's WNC Original Music, wherever you get your podcast or you can go to wncoriginalmusic.com. Or you can just once an hour ask your smart speaker, play WNC Original Music.
I'm not going to say the name of your smart speaker because I respect your privacy. Hi, this is Jennifer Elvarado and you are listening to WNC Original Music. I saw some branches me too. I used to come here, scratch of the madness.
Too long. That was originally going to be a super slow ballad. I'm glad I decided to pick it up a little bit. But it's just appreciation for being here in the mountains and hiking.
Hiking is the spiritual thing for me and a lot of people, I guess. It's just really special, really special place we live in. So that's what it's about. Just one of the few years ago on Thanksgiving.
I wrote it. Oh, okay. Do you think of a certain place when you sing this song? Any particular specific place in the mountains?
I'm thinking of a few places because I'm going to have Dustin Maxwell do a video for it and invite a bunch of my hiking buddies to do sort of a casual phone video. Just kind of a positive, laughing, happy thing. So I'm thinking of a few places, some overlooks. Pink beds overlook is really amazing.
Wagon Road Gap is beautiful. There's just some places, I would say, up to 76 if you're turning right toward Mount Pisgah. There's some really breathtaking views. There's frying pans.
Mountain, of course, Pisgah, Mount Pisgah. But I was just thinking of some really great overlooks where you just look out and you see row upon row of ridge upon ridge. And Dustin likes to film in the evening because that's the best light. And that's when it's kind of settling between the ridges.
It's just absolutely gorgeous. That's what I visualize. Oh, yeah. Now, how many albums do you have up?
I have three studio, like kind of digital professional albums. I've got an EP called Carolina Blonde, which was 2013. And then I've got a full length called Miles and Miles, which was 2017. And then just another EP called The Never Wear Sisters in summer 2021.
And where'd you record these? The first one was with Terry Wettin and Hog Rock Mountain Studios. He has passed away since, but he was a great singer songwriter. And he worked at WTCU, did a local artist showcase in Hendersonville, created a whole series and performance series that I got to do.
And so he did that EP and worked on some of the production of Miles and Miles, but then handed it over to Chris Rosser, who's with Free Planet Radio. And he's got his own studio in West Asheville. These are all in people's homes. Really nice studios in people's homes.
So Chris has a studio. And one thing I'm really, well, that whole full length CD took me two and a half years to finish because if you know, musicians kind of have to do it as you can afford it. And just it's hard to find time. Chris's schedule is very busy because he was performing with Free Planet Radio and traveling the world.
And just to be able to get all the musicians in and do it. But Elliot Wydopian, who was in Free Planet Radio, award winning bass player, he has more than one Grammy. He played bass on Highway Song, which we'll talk about, I'm sure. Real quick, are you holding a baby rattle by any chance?
I am not. I hear a little shaking sound. Yeah, do you hear that? Is there anything on that end?
No, I think do you have a microphone on your headphones? On your headphones? I hate for you to hold that whole time. It's fine.
It's a heavy deal. Oh, yeah, that actually sounds a lot better. Good job. Okay.
How's the card? Well, you may not know this from personal experience, but if you're in a really toxic relationship and then you break up, sometimes that person tries to smear campaign you with everyone. So it's basically about a toxic relationship and how the person who is perpetrating all this nastiness seems to be untouched themselves. And karma hasn't really bitten them yet.
But you're thinking it probably will. So get ready. For the house of cards, we'll fall. I know exactly.
I've been in that situation exactly myself. I was the person who spread the misinformation. I cannot believe that. I've been on the other end of it.
You've been like the smear campaigner? Yeah, karma hasn't done pretty good. Karma hasn't touched me yet. It hasn't.
Like that map in the background is not falling in your head. Everything seems to be going OK. It actually falls quite often. I should probably do something different.
Yeah, it's always falling. A smart person would say, wait a minute. Let me do something different. I think it's falling twice for me jumping around.
When I do my dance recitals in here. Oh, absolutely. You've got to be free. You've got to play all those arms.
I don't know if you call it dance. Perhaps you're familiar with the Broadway show Stomp. We're doing a local up-road version. We're trying to get that going.
Really? Yeah, no, no. I really kind of wanted to see that. I wanted to see you strap some garbage cantops on your shoes.
I mean, I'll do that. Yeah. Okay. Well, there's the percussion that I need.
Yeah, exactly. On my next show. Have you ever... We talked about the trio.
What's the largest band you've ever played in? Good question. Bye. It's...
I'm a retardant. I haven't played in any large bands. The largest band I've played in would be the CD release band that I got together, which was myself, Andrew, Bradford Carson, Amanda Hollyfield, and two backup singers. That's pretty big.
Marion and Tana. That was the biggest band I think I've ever played in, and sometimes I've played with Andrew Delson's band, which is there are three of them, and then I make the fourth. I really haven't played in any huge ensembles. So, he's the same enquirers, but that would be the biggest collective music I've ever done.
Alright, I want to thank Carrie for being on the show. Don't forget to check out her music at karaemoresommusic.com. A bunch of different styles of music there, both her solo with trio and with Jamie Lee, as discussed earlier. Also, of course, I want to thank Jamie Lee and Andrew Delson for accompanying Carrie on the podcast recording of her semi-live music presentation.
We'll have some videos of that coming out pretty soon. I'm going to be very interesting and entertaining to see and hear. That reminds me, don't forget to check out Andrew Delson's music at AndrewDelson.com. One more time, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast.
Just search WNC Original Music wherever you get your podcasts or go to wncoriginalmusic.com. For the closing song tonight, a very interesting submission from a group called Staycation compilation. And this compilation series that showcases a variety and the sound of music while giving back to a greater cause. And this particular volume proceeds go to the Baltimore International Academy's music department and funds opportunities for more students to have instruments and be more musically involved.
We're going to have maybe a couple of tracks from this compilation over the next couple of months and talk to him about maybe, who knows, maybe doing something similar in this area. We'll see in the future unless you have more information about that. But for right now, this is a track from an app called Pelvis Presley and it's called Voice of Wisdom. Have a good week.
Standing in a drive while we wait, the fire we started is keeping us warm at night. Shut up the midnight oasis we're trying to sleep. North of a dozen stars shining bright. Take me to a galaxy far, far away.
If we go by foot, we'll make it by tomorrow before midnight. Compare normal activity, a platonic relationship with our imaginary minds. It's all in good faith, but you did leave an aftertaste of something rowing in my mind's eye. Just when I'm ready to take a break, you devour my brain with new ideas.
Unleash your creative juices on me. That drives my emotions and motives I've begun to realize. Like if I had an addiction to risk and you were the doctor that diagnosed me with it. Now I catch myself trespassing in secluded areas all over the time.
Living out of a hostile, paying my bills with the community currency. You abduct my plans. Now we're driving across country, 3D printing your hands into my ceiling fan and changing my Wi-Fi's router's name for something funny. There's been plenty of options putting me in this position to do what I want, when I want, anytime.
Learning this algorithm to code the perfect replica I desire. It's critical to follow these principles all over the time. Troubleshooting all your problems at ease. Medivate it to solve them.
I know it's not what you think. But it's the closest thing to a time machine. This is a voice of wisdom. You need to hear.
And... As Ron says it is, and around here we do whatever Ron says.