GURF MORLIX at The Cadillac Lounge, Thursday, August 20. Rating: NNNN
The Cadillac Lounge had the rare-in-Toronto ambiance last night of a songwriter-friendly cafe-bar (and yes, Ive watched too much Nashville) for two generous solo sets from Austin-based bluesman Gurf Morlix.
Morlix was peddling his latest CD, Eatin At Me, and joking about his frankly I-dont-give-a-shit approach to graphic design (it is, arguably, the best album cover ever, he said of his visual punning a picture of an insect-eaten old log with his hat on it).
Thing is, Morlixs songs are better live just him and a small Canadian-made acoustic guitar and a stomp board, his timing tight and guitar playing so restrained you could lose sight of his genius work with Lucinda Williams, for example, though what lead playing he did work in was wonderful. He employed a similar economy with his vocals gritty, yet very precise, hitting notes but not holding them.
Morlix is from Lackawanna (near Buffalo) and a couple tracks off the new album reflect that: Dirty Old Buffalo, in particular, is a portrait of a city where the dingy past seems to linger under the surface of the cleaner present.
One song that seems silly on record (The Dog I Am, written from the perspective of a dog) turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser live. And Morlix got creative on Bang Bang Bang off his last album, Finds The Present Tense, subbing in an improvised guitar bass line solo for band arrangements.
Rounding out the sets were covers that demonstrated more musical breadth than Morlixs songwriting alone: sad Scottish ballad The Massacre of Glencoe, The Skeletons Waiting For My Gin To Hit Me (which sounded kind of ska in Morlixs hands) and Last Time by Blind Boys Of Alabama. He closed with 400-year-old Celtic song The Parting Glass, getting a whole other haunting sound out of his guitar somehow still akin to the blues.
music@nowtoronto.com | @sarahegreene
