Click bars below to open articles regarding Kate and the band.

Morrissey expanding her musical horizon

By Chris Starrs   |   Correspondent   |   Story updated at 7:33 PM on Wednesday, August 6, 2008, Published in the Athens Banner-Herald

http://onlineathens.com/stories/080708/marquee_2008080700260.shtml

Born into a family of pianists, Kate Morrissey has spent a significant amount of her life at the keyboard. And for most of her performing career, the singer-songwriter has opted to take the stage alone.

"There's a tradition of classical players in my family, but I never really enjoyed sheet music and piano lessons," says Morrissey, who has been playing in and around Athens since she moved here three years ago. "But I did learn the basics, and I was eventually able to put music and the piano together.

"During college, it was very important for me to play and tour solo. I toured a good bit while I was in college - it was a great way to fund traveling. And being a writer and being by myself made me very efficient. So I got in the habit of generally playing solo and not seeking out groups, which also brought out difficulties."

But in recent months, the South Dakota native has blended her solo style - which has been compared to artists ranging from Regina Spektor to Joni Mitchell to Tori Amos - with the instrumental prowess of Atlanta natives John Norris (drums, guitar) and Charles Harvey (bass, cello). The combination has added a tasty edge to Morrissey's introspective compositions.

"I never sought out a band," says Morrissey, who will perform on a double bill with Atlanta folk icon Caroline Aiken on Saturday at Little Kings. "John was in my yoga class and he told me about Charles, and we got together and it really sounded good. They've been able to take elements of jazz and exploit it a little more.

"I was playing solo, but now I'm consistently playing with the guys, and it's building on itself. I'm feeling a lot of support and enthusiasm for my music and it's delightful because it has taken a while. This year feels like a lot of things are consolidating."

With three albums, including 2007's "Nobody, Too," behind her, Morrissey is presently working with Norris and Harvey under the studio supervision of Joel Hatstat (Pegasuses-XL) on a collection of recordings called "Land!"

"I had a short demo called 'Land!' with the band and we're in the studio finishing it up," says Morrissey, who's also in the process of completing requirements for a master's degree in social work at the University of Georgia. "It's now seven songs, but we're taking it up to 12."

When she's not writing or performing, Morrissey - who lives near Winterville with her husband, Roger Stahl, an assistant professor in speech communication at Georgia - teaches public speaking classes at Athens Tech and yoga classes at Rubber Soul and she also volunteers for several organizations in the Athens area.

"I knew I didn't want to be a full-time teacher; I like to have my music and be able to do other work in the community as well," she says.

Morrissey, who, in addition to Little Kings has performed at the Melting Point, Flicker, Farm 255 and even Wild Wing, said she's particularly looking forward to her upcoming date at Little Kings because of Aiken's participation. The singer-songwriter-guitarist has been playing her gritty brand of folk and blues for three-plus decades and while considered a musical institution, Aiken shows no signs of slowing down.

"I'm very excited about this show because I love Little Kings, but the major reason I'm excited is I'll get to play with Caroline," says Morrissey. "I've played with her at the Georgia Nature Center and I'm just blown away every time I see her.

"This show will be as fun for me as it will be for anyone there, and Little Kings is a good venue for this. I hope that we'll be able to work out at least one song together - I'm looking forward to some collaboration."

With "Land!" nearly complete, Morrissey says she hopes to spend the rest of 2008 reaching out for new listeners - and finishing grad school.

"We hope to continue to play in Athens and meet more people and we're expanding more into Atlanta," she says. "We're working to spread out regionally and get this music out there. Being in school limits my ability to tour extensively, so we're trying to get a firm footing before we start touring a lot. Writing music is something that's unavoidable for me."

If you go...

Kate Morrissey with Caroline Aiken

When: 9 p.m., Saturday

Where: Little Kings Shuffle Club, 223 W. Hancock St.

Online: www.myspace.com/littlekingsshuffleclub, www.katemorrissey.com

Editor's note: The headline was incorrect on the original version of this story.

Interview…with singer/songwriter Kate Morrissey

http://3questionsandanswers.blogspot.com/2008/07/interviewwith-singersongwriter-kate.html

"I am very dependent on the muse for a lot of my writing," says singer/songwriter Kate Morrissey, adding that she admires people who can set a time to write each day. "My creative flow never has worked that way."

Sometimes she writes a lot and other times her creativity goes elsewhere. In addition, to writing music and performing with her band, Morrissey is a graduate student in social work and a part-time instructor at the University of Georgia. She and her band mates are also recording a CD this summer. She has a lot going on in her life.

When did the urge to write songs hit her?

Morrissey began writing songs without any knowledge of music in the first grade. A few years later, the family took in a friend who was a struggling pianist and singer and Morrissey discovered how musical instruments, the piano in particular, could be used in songs. She soon began to learn to play the piano.

Then in 1995, her twin sister presented her with time in a recording studio for her birthday. She had collected the money from family and friends to pay for it. It took Morrissey three more years to work up the courage to play before an audience at the Z Coffee House in her hometown of Brandon, SD.

"It took me all that time to play at an open mic, then I began playing there weekly," Morrissey adds. She was 17 years old.

The early influences to her songwriting offered songs with angst and anger. She has always used her music to understand herself and her world and to explore issues and emotions that aren't always socially acceptable to express, she explains. Counting Crows wrote songs like that.

"I liked Nine Inch Nails," she continues, "particularly the ballad songs. They felt very real to me, (lots of) angst."

How does she know when a song is good?

"I don't…(that's) the short answer," she says with a slight laugh. Morrissey usually likes all her new songs and tends to prefer the more complex ones that sometimes don't play well with an audience.

"I'm not objective about my songs. There's a part of me that will resonate with a song for a longer time, but a lot of the information I get about whether a song is good has to do with other people."

She finds her ideas almost everywhere. She tends to focus on relationships, not only romantic relationships, but what it means to be human in this world, the dynamics of being a woman, etc. She also takes ideas from her life, sometimes unconsciously.

"A friend pointed out I had three space ship songs now. I didn't realize it but I think I wrote them in grad school." They're all about reaching for potential and exploring beyond the bounds.

Morrissey also has a series of songs featuring water and some songs on cannibalism. She didn't explain those, however.

She has tried numerous times to write for other people or specific occasions, but it never worked well. "If someone says 'OK, you're on a timeline. You need to write a song about this by this time.' That's intensely difficult for me because I rely on creativity to flow naturally. I don't have a strong method for forcing it."

Instead Morrissey can play with a piano rift or a snippet of lyric for weeks before it's ready to write. Other times the music and lyrics come so spontaneously she has to stop and find a piano.

"Once I was driving in my hometown (when a song came to her) and I was a little ways from home but I was closer to my grandmother's house so I stopped there and figured it out on her piano."

"I don't usually compose without a piano," she explains. "There's a level of safety I need to write, so it often is at home. I don't really like anyone in the room when I write. (It needs to be) a place where it's ok if I sound bad."

What is the best advice she's ever received?

Her husband Roger Stahl is one of her strongest influences these days. Sensitive to and respectful of language, he is usually the first person to hear a new song.

"If I use something carelessly, he'll usually point it out. That has affected my style and made me think about (my words). He's got me thinking more about my writing…so I'm not using as many or any throw away words."

However, the best advice she's heard lately came from a novelist. Morrissey played at the Savannah Book Festival in February 2008 where she heard author Terry Kay (To Dance With The White Dog, Taking Lottie Home) speak and later met him at a cocktail party.

"He said ' I can schedule lots of things, (but) I never force characters. I'm patient with characters and I wait for them to come to me.'"

She says he so impressed her that she wrote a song about what he had said.

"There is only so much we can do with our intellect and there are ways we can become more in tune with our…creativity." She continues that so much about being an artist is patience and "it's trusting that we'll be inspired again."



To learn more about Kate Morrissey and to listen to her songs, visit her website.

Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD)

April 11, 2003 Back where it all began
Author: Robert Morast; Staff Author: Staff Section: Entertainment
Page: 7D
Kate Morrissey's show at Great Plains Coffee is a return to familiar ground

BY ROBERT MORAST Argus Leader

Her performance at Great Plains Coffee at 9 p.m. Saturday isn't the only reason folk singer Kate Morrissey is coming to the area this weekend. "I have a dental appointment, too," she says. "That's what South Dakota has to offer me, dental appointments." Because humor rarely comes across in written form, let it be known Morrissey was joking.

A Brandon native now living in Ripon, Wis., Morrissey has several reasons to come back, including the obvious allure of visiting family and the return to the spot of her first public performances. Back when it still was known as Z Coffee House, Morrissey debuted her original, piano-driven folk songs to public ears during open mic nights in what is now Great Plains Coffee.

After testing her skills there, Morrissey left Z Coffee House and Brandon to pursue an education at Ripon College. Since leaving, her career has blossomed as Morrissey has released three albums of original content while performing at spots in Madison, Wis., Milwaukee and Chicago. But while she's tested her piano abilities and a voice that sometimes is reminiscent of Melissa Etheridge's in larger markets, Morrissey's hometown gigs are among the more nerve-wracking. "It's more daunting because it's people I grew up with," she says from her home in Ripon. "Friends come because they know I'll attract people they know. I'm the juncture for them. It's sort of a reunion."

Though it's such a binding factor now, Morrissey's musical path didn't arise until her junior high years when another local musician was staying with her parents. For a while, Kristie Holler was a houseguest of the Morrissey family. Observing Holler play her music provided Morrissey with a true light bulb moment. "She was the first person that made me think you could write your own songs," Morrissey says. "I didn't realize that individual people did that. I've been writing ever since." Morrissey's twin sister helped take her career to the next step. During a party celebrating a birthday for the twins, Morrissey's sister collected money from each attendee. She then used the funds to book some time at Earsay studios in Sioux Falls. Even without the inspiration and aid from friends and her family, Morrissey is convinced music still would have come out of her. "I think that if people are going to play music, it usually falls out of them," she says. "I'm sure it would have struck me."