Concrete And Mud [LP]

Sam Morrow - Concrete And Mud [LP]

Five albums into an acclaimed career, Sam Morrow has carved out a sound that exists somewhere outside of genre and geography. It's his own version of modern-day American roots music: a mix of roadhouse rock & roll, bluesy R&B, and country-fried funky-tonk, driven forward by groove, grease, and guitars. It's also a sound that owes as much to the road - where Morrow spent most of the past decade on tour, supporting albums like Concrete & Mud and Gettin' By On Gettin' Down - as the various places he's called home. This is music for the fast lane. Music for empty highways. Music for people who, like Morrow, always seem to find themselves in transit. "I feel like I'm searching for something," he says. "I've been on some kind of journey. Maybe I don't know what I'm looking for, exactly, but I'm keeping my eyes open." On The Ride Here marks the latest leg of that journey. Morrow takes us along for the ride, singing in a laidback Texas drawl about highway haunts ("Thunderbird Motel"), peyote trips in the Mojave Desert ("Searching For Paradise"), and the glamor and grind of the open road ("Hired Gun"). On The Ride Here offers more than roadside ephemera and travelogue tales, though. Morrow isn't just focused on the drive these days; he's interested in the destination, too, and a number of these songs deal with the hard lessons and new perspectives that come with rest, reflection, and time spent at home.