Andrew Morris - Shadow OfA Shadow

Tue 12th Apr, 2011 in Music Reviews

Shadow Of A Shadow, the fifth studio album from prolific singer-songwriter, Andrew Morris has “homemade charm” oozing from its every pore. This could be due to the fact he used his fine home cookin’ to entice his many guest stars to his studio in the woods or it could just be that the songs always had character and charm in spades. Either way and even with its imperfections, you can tell this record was one labour of love and you can rest sound in the knowledge that there ain’t another one like it lurking around in the back of another musician’s cupboard.

The process took a little over a year with the beardy man decamping to a cottage up Mt. Nebo in Queensland with the aim of making a stripped-back folk record with the help of a mountain muse. The back-to-nature ethos apparently worked for a while but eventually Morris would adopt a “whatever works best” attitude and whittle twenty songs down to thirteen for a home-record job with a little help from his friends. These included no less than The Wilson Pickers, The Gin Club, Claire Bowditch, Washington, Bernard Fanning and Tim Rogers.

The thirteen songs amble by at a comfortable 47-odd minutes with the main connection being the rustic surroundings that provided many opportunities for navel-gazing by a solitary wanderer. There are also obvious hints at Morris’ previous works and influences – folk, country pop and rock. There are the obligatory tales of love but these are delivered within the context of travel, flight and seeking change, so it’s about the personal and the portable.

Home Fires starts off sounding like a Powderfinger ballad before some trademark George Harrison-skywards-seeking guitars kick in and the dust eventually settles on a country-meets-folk song. There are other nods to the folk genre with NYC sounding like it could be by Mumford & Sons thanks to its soaring soul while Horizon has Bob Evans (particularly his ditty Turn ) stamped all over it.

Elsewhere, there is the shoop-shoop pop of Cry and a more rocking tune with a dark undercurrent and cheeky guitars in 14th Floor. Aypositr meanwhile, is like Darren Hanlon’s Electric Skeleton with a heady dose of pop steroids but more straight and narrow lyrics.

On Shadow Of A Shadow Morris uses the “weary brows” of his well-worn musician/traveler/vagabond personality to spruik his version of three chords and the truth. The result is a batch of songs that are intricate, detailed, special and boasting an old-school charm that come with the territory of no-frills entertainment courtesy of a lovingly crafted, homemade scrapbook brimming with memories.