Gurf Morlix continued...

The newest Slaid Cleaves’ CD, “Wishbones” on Philo/ Rounder Records (reviewed elsewhere this edition), which features a tougher sound, has received strong reviews; Morlix was asked if anyone had said it sounded a bit like a Gurf Morlix record with Cleaves’ singing, which he replied no: “We decided that he wanted a bit more of a muscular sound; he said he wanted to get out of the folk ghetto and maybe get some more mainstream airplay.”
Morlix spends most of his working time recording musicians in his studio outside Austin. “Making a record takes 3-4 weeks; I can make 6-7 records easily in nine months, although I seem to work all the time, by choice. I’m never booked way in advance and I keep making records with my friends: Slaid Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Mary Gauthier, and it’s hard to say which came first, the chicken or the egg, with whether they were friends or musical colleagues first, but Ray did bring Mary over one day before I worked with her. I loved working with Jim (Whitford) on his record and with The Pine Dogs. Making music is supposed to be fun but the record business can get in the way. Linda McRae is a friend who I probably met in 1988-89 and we just hit it off; she is a riot to be around (and she recorded Gurf’s “Falling off the Face of the World” on her last CD, “Cryin’ out Loud,” which Morlix produced).”
Between his cabin, staying at Whitford’s cabin in Magnetawan, Ontario, for a few weeks and working with the likes of McRae, Morlix seems to connect well with Canada: “I like Canada a lot; they’ve got nice people and a real nice place. I consider myself part Canadian; I spend about a quarter of a year up there and I consider myself an honorary Canadian. (For his summer 2004 Canada months) I’ll be on vacation except for backing Mary Gauthier up at Mariposa; otherwise, I’m chopping wood, drinking beer and laying around. It is somewhat reserved up at the cabin; we don’t have neighbors, but we have boat traffic, and I go into town about once a week to check e-mail at the library. And I get to Western New York every year; I love it here in the summertime. I have family here and it is important for me to be here.”
Gurf noted that he had “a couple of projects worked up that will take me through the holidays,” and he was asked to think of an ideal collaboration: “I always thought I wanted to make a Bob Dylan record, but I don’t know if I do now. And there is Neil Young; usually, I say it’s the song I chose, but sometimes it’s a guitar or other sound, something I can connect with.”
Blue Corn Music can be contacted at www.bluecornmusic.com.