Sounds | Morgan Wade - The Night (pt.2)
- John Van de Mergel
- 15 nov 2022
- 7 minuten om te lezen
Net als op haar debuutalbum Reckless (maart 2021) is ook haar nieuwe single gesneden koek voor eender welk country station in de V.S. Wat Morgan Wade echter onderscheidt van de kleffe massa is de authenticiteit die je in elk nummer voelt. Dat ze een stem heheeft die kan snijden en bij momenten doet denken aan een rauwere, jonge Dolly Parton, helpt natuurlijk.
Het uptempo The Night was reeds terug te vinden op de deluxe re-issue van Reckless dat in januari van dit jaar verscheen. Pt.2 gaat meer richting ballad, maar dan met een leuke beat eronder die heel hedendaags aandoet en afstapt van de typische c&w formule.
"This song is the next chapter in a story of personal growth and healing ā it means a lot to me and I hope it connects with yāall."
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Morgan Wade didnāt write to be a sensation, for critical acclaim or massive concert tours. She wrote to speak her truth, to save her own life ā and perhaps throw a rope to others struggling with the weight of a world moving too fast, loves where you fall too hard and nights that, good or bad, seem to go on forever.
2021 saw Reckless, her Thirty Tigers/now Sony Music Nashville debut, and lead single āWilder Daysā topping critical lists from Rolling Stone, TIME, Stereogum, New York Times, Boston Globe, FADER, Tennessean, Whiskey Riff, Billboard, and The Boot and Taste of Country who both proclaimed, āa once-in-a-decade debut.ā With a voice that is raw hurt, deep knowing and somehow innocence retained, Wade wrote or co-wrote a song cycle about the reality facing teens and 20-somethings that embraced raw desire, the reality of getting high and getting sober, the realm of crawling through the wreckage with a tough vulnerability that is as singular as the young woman from Floyd, Virginia.
āI didnāt know anybody like me when I was a kid, listening to music,ā she confesses. āThatās why I fell in love with Elvis, that raw emotion. He held nothing back, and I loved that, so when I started writing, thatās where I went. I didnāt know you couldnāt. And to tell kids ādo your own thing,ā thatās a bit much, but if I can show them something else? That might light a fire.ā
The sinewy songwriter covered in ink understands striking that fire. Wade, shamed for singing at school, felt the singe. She recalls, āIād spent so long being told, āYour voice is weirdā by other kids, and itās such a pivotal time. Theyād say, āWhatās wrong with you? You can play for yourself but do it at home.ā
āAnd it helps,ā she knowingly concedes, ābecause you do it for you.ā Developing her distinctly singular ā turpentine and honeycomb ā vocal tone, her emotional transparency suggests Etta James, Adele, Patti Griffin, Lana Del Ray, St. Etienneās Annie Clark, even Alison Krauss.
With insider trade HITS proclaiming, āImagine Kris Kristofferson as a Gen Z woman,ā The New York Times raving, āshe sounds like sheās singing from the depths of historyā and FADER offering, āWade has a voice like a jagged blade, sharp enough to draw blood but lustrous under the light,ā Reckless landed hard and true. A product of her collaboration with Sadler Vaden (guitarist in Jason Isbell + the 400 Unit) and engineer Paul Ebersold, the trio worked to keep the guitars forward, the edges rough and her voice the star in the loose tumble of players meshing on the edge of Tom Petty/Lucinda Williamsā rock & roll.
Just as importantly, Vaden ā who came across Wade at a music festival, where his guitar tech asked for a CD ā recognized the power of a woman being truly honest. Rather than shy away from her faltering places, self-doubt or demons, the first thing they worked on was āThe Night,ā a white-knuckled account of rough emotions and meaner addictions.
The straightforward lyricist explains, āGrowing up in the South, people are always saying, āWell, youāre just having your feelings...ā But instead, youāre having a panic attack, or youāre masking something. You have to ask, āSo, whatās causing that?ā
āFor so long, we try to act like āIām fine, you know.ā I got sober. Itās all hunky dory,ā she continues. āBut itās not. No one wants to talk about the struggle, but it happens. I wrote āThe Nightā in an obviously dark time ā and people really responded; that song means so much to so many people, I canāt tell you. But we figured since it had already been out, we didnāt need to include it on Reckless.ā
Unprepared for the response to her debut album, the relentlessly touring artist just kept bringing her music to the people. A stouter kind of country that never sacrifices lyricism, she spent the fall on the road with Lucero, the hard-driving Memphis-based soul/rock/Americana icons.
With āWilder Daysā becoming a SiriusXM Highway Find, then hitting No. 1 on their fast-tracking country station, Wadeās song ā one of TIMEās 10 Best of 2021 in any genre ā opened a portal for Americana, alternative and rock fans to an artist straddling the craggy terrain across genres, but also life. Signed to Sony Music Nashville by a label head whoād grown up in bands with Kim Richey, Byron House and Bill Lloyd, the power of defying genres in the name of harder truths inspired Randy Goodman to want to bring Morgan Wade to the biggest audience possible without compromising what made her so special.
As people caught on, the reaction to songs like āThe Night,ā the ones not on the album, created a conversation about what else might not have been included in her exquisite ten song debut. With as much life lived ā Wade formed her first band off Craigslist; āmy friend and I drove over to this house in a pretty rough part of town, went down to the basement and found some pretty good playersā ā and absorbed, she was fearless in documenting her journey.
In college, studying medical sciences, she played out after a break-up, performing a song to put it all out there. Without a role model, she performed the same way she learned to sing and write: for herself, to herself. But when she gigged, something happened. People connected to her alienation, distress and seeking answers for things no one was talking about.
āI guess the songs are saying the things they canāt say,ā she concedes. āI see these big guys crying. Iāve had these great big men come up to me after my shows to tell me Iām saying what everybodyās thinking.ā
That drove her forward, bringing Reckless to fruition. The loping want-you-now reality-checking āMatchsticks and Metaphorsā with its confession, āif you donāt want me, that donāt bother me at all/ donāt be upset when I donāt answer if you call...,ā the stark Appalachia of āMet Youā and the swirling, snapped finger compulsion beyond drugs or alcohol āLast Cigaretteā captivated listeners for their white knuckled hold on reality. Like āWilder Daysā ā with its jāaccuse āYou said you hate the smell of cigarette smoke...ā hook, which Rolling Stone called āthe yearās most irresistible country-rock chorusā ā the sense of mystery allows listeners room their own lives in her songs.
āIām not naming names,ā Wade says, eyes rolling at the idea. āBut Iām always for whatever paths gonna pave the way for the next outcast, the next person who feels so alone. If the songs speak to the people who need to hear them, it makes me feel good about having been so vulnerable and honest. When people scream āWilder Daysā right back to me or tell me they feel like they have a story, their story in my story, thatās when you know youāre not alone.ā
To that end, Wade, Vaden and Ebersold talked about whatās next. With songs left uncut, songs that expand the story, it seemed a shame to move on. āWe decided we wanted to share some more. Take āThe Night.ā In concert, people sing that back to me as loud as āWilder Days,ā so there were things we wished we could change ā thereās a B-3 part that got buried in the mix ā and this way, we could bring back it into the story. To me, thatās what all of this is... The story of where I was, what I want and where Iām going.ā
In a nod to Elvis Presley, whose āSuspicious Mindsā sheās been scalding live with a portion of AC/DCās āYou Shook Me (All Night Long)ā interjected, Deluxe contains a sizzling rendition that dials up its sexual obsession. At the other end of the spectrum, thereās āThrough Your Eyes,ā a chiming power-pop perspective shift on her recklessness.
āWhen you have younger siblings, when they say āI wanna be like you,ā thinking youāre so cool, thatās sobering,ā Wade explains. āYou see all of it in a very different light. You know, itās one thing when you know you shouldnāt, and you do it anyway; itās another when you realize a three-year-old is taking it in.ā As for Elvis, āItās very sacred to cover one of his songs, and I wanted to choose one I could make my own. I have a lot of younger fans who donāt know, who think itās my song, so I love that I can take something and introduce it to a new generation... but we wouldnāt have done it, just to do it.
āVocally, it works for me; itās got a great range, especially when I hit that chorus. Iām kind of weird about covers, but when I asked the band, āWhat do you think about this?ā They were all in.ā
Between the road, the critical acclaim, the growing radio believers, Wade knows the future is coming ā and intends to be ready. With one foot strongly in the realm of where sheās been, she wrote the tumbling the rollicking āWhen the Dirt All Settles,ā with The Cadillac Threeās Jaren Johnston and āRunā ā Vaden a co-writer on both tracks ā to find a lighter way to escape the things that pull you down. She knows sobriety is a daily battle, that the dark moods and other issues are a fact of life. But the wide-eyed songwriter also knows how we face the day is often up to us. Rather than drowning in boredom or desperation, āRunā is a launching pad, looking both ways and finding whatever escape might be found in the company of someone outrunning their own sad memories ā and the galloping running into the distance āWhen the Dirt All Settles.ā
āIt was fun, the polar opposite of what I thought [writing with someone new would be],ā she says. āIāve always written out of emotion, out of the moment, so I had it in my mind you had to be all serious all of the time. But sometimes itās okay to kind of let go, to just have three minutes to just kick it out and have some fun. You can keep the honesty, but maybe take it from somewhere else.ā Somewhere else? For Morgan Wade, wherever that is, you can bet itāll be wild and free and seeking.
āI figure if I keep saying the things I want to say, then people are still going to be thinking them, too. Weāre all running into those feelings, so letās just get it out in the open where we can let āem go.ā
