Morby's "This Is A Photograph" Tour
CW: talking about a client like a fan
Tours are wrapping up. Many artists are done for the year, or they can count the shows left on their fingers. Kevin Morby played the final date of his North American tour last night in Vancouver, the second of a rowdy two-night stand.
He sent me a blurry selfie early this morning—5am Pacific time in Western Canada—in front of a 2.5-star hotel with his backpack on, waiting for a car to the airport to catch the first flight home to Kansas City. He said the final show was a killer.
The promoter emailed and echoed that. I got a lot of texts from Morby across the run about how ripping things were out there, and a lot of notes from the buyers and other music biz friends seeing the show. The tour was in support of This Is A Photograph, Kevin’s newest record, his fucking seventh full-length in nine years.
It’s still a fucked up time for the live biz! The blow Covid dealt was heavy, and I think it’ll rattle everybody around for several record cycles and festival seasons. But in the fog, Morby’s out there fully kicking ass. It’s not that every show was sold out, but a bunch of them were, and when the rooms weren’t totally full, the reports still came back all thumbs pointing up. We’re all learning that Tonight! Not Sold Out! can also do the job just fine, sometimes.
To be fair, there were 3 meh markets. That's out of 33 cities! I won’t name the tough ones, because eventually he’ll crack those, too. Morby’s gotten really good at this, and he’s gonna keep getting better. It’s a long, slow arc without a peak, god willing.
For random reasons, I‘ve not actually seen a ton of Kevin Morby shows. I started working for him in 2015, when he was touring the second album, and for many years, I wasn’t able to see key plays, the New Yorks and LAs. The ones I would see were gigs where Morby would come off stage saying they sucked! We joked about a curse. He had a curse with his hometown shows in Kansas City, too. He broke that one on this tour, at the long-standing but nonetheless poorly-named Knuckleheads. Likewise, he knocked me down this go around in Boston and LA.
Was the pandemic friendly to guitars? To live bands?! I love this theory, and I tell it to people all day. It’s based on much hope with maybe half my head in the sand, but the Morby run is good evidence for me.
I was non-Covid sick for the Nashville show a few weeks ago. My city has been half-cursed for Morby across the years. The first gig I saw here was at the much loved, long-lost Stone Fox. Riley Walker opened, played forever, and Morby went on super late in front of a spattering of mildly curious peeps. There was another pretty lackluster one at Third & Lindsley, which I blame fully on the weirdness of the room. I did love the solo set a few years back at Third Man in the Blue Room with Waxahatchee, but last year in Nashville, on tour with Hamilton Leithauser deep in the pandemic, touring in the shit like little renegades, his set was overpowered several times by the crashing of bowling pins during quiet parts or in-between tunes. A tip: If you tell Brooklyn Bowl 'no bowling’ when booking, they’ll accommodate!
I had spies in the audience here at the Basement East this time, co-workers and friends, and I kept up on my phone from the couch. Seems like it was a win, so chalk one up for the GOOD column in Music City.
I recovered in time to go see the show in Boston in good health. It was excellent, but real Covid found me there for the first time, either at the Morby show, or at Dehd the next night, or in Chipotle, or on the plane. I was starting to get cocky, thinking I couldn’t get it. Covid was like: “LOL watch this.” Glad I snuck another show in before I went down.
Mal and I have recently figured out that Kevin’s “Harlem River”, a perfect 9+ minute song from his first record, magically puts baby Walker to sleep. It’s replaced the psychotic hiss of digital shhhhh tracks we’ve been using the first few months. These new days with “Harlem River”, she’s usually out mid-way through the tune.
Thanks for reading. I’d love it if you passed this along to friends you think might dig it. I’m gonna spend more time here in ‘23, and less time tweeting and shit.
Don’t underestimate midwest American sun,
Adam
YOOOO: Little Engines Issue Seven is out now, and a pretty newsprint copy is yours, free while they last.
Great read, and it’s good to get some insights into how Kevin has done on this tour in these strange times. For whatever reason, I didn’t fully connect with Kevin until last year, but he’s quickly become one of my favorites. The last couple of albums, in particular, are masterpieces in my opinion. My wife and I live in the Memphis area, and got married at the Peabody, so the backstory on This is a Photograph really connected with us.
Hope to see him soon myself! I always enjoy your writing, and thanks for publishing and sending out Little Engines as well! If the last few weeks are a predictor of the future, we might all soon spend a lot less time tweeting.
Caught the Basement East show on the TV. Sure streaming doesn’t make up for seeing a live show, but helped me get over the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to make the Minneapolis show from my sleepy Central Minnesota town in the middle of the week. Damn adult responsibilities. Someday I will catch Morby in person. Someday. On the plus side, my 8-year-old was also able to watch.