Events

[ROCK] Kevin Morby is in a van. The Kansas-bred singer/songwriter tells me this over a heavily muffled phone call, a call which ultimately ends when it somewhat expectedly drops. It’s not unusual or surprising that Morby is in a van right now. In fact, it would be surprising if he weren’t, and instead lounging in his apartment in Los Angeles. He’s traveling through Santa Cruz, Califronia, talking to me about his latest album, Still Life, which he says is about “living nowhere.” Not only has Morby jumped from city to city—from his native Kasas City, to Brooklyn, and now to Los Angeles—he’s jumped from band to band. In 2005 he joined the experimental folk group Woods, before forming garage rock band, the Babies, with his roommate Cassie Ramone of the Vivian Girls. Last year the Babies went on an indefinite hiatus so that Ramone and Morby could both focus on their solo careers, which Morby had launched a year earlier with the release of Harlem River—his debut solo album.

Harlem River is, in essence, an homage to New York City written from an ex-patriot’s point of view. He followed up Harlem River with the contemplative, quarter-life study that is 2014’s Still Life. The title itself works on a few levels: It’s ironic because Still Life is clearly a record about transition and journey, but a few of the tracks, like “The Ballad of Arlo Jones,” and “All of My Life” can be seen as portraits or landscapes, which also evoke the Still Life theme. Morby comes to Mohawk Place on Saturday, March 7 presented by ESI and The Tralf.