Whitey Morgan and the 78s

w/ Sam Morrow

Thursday, 12.7.23 

Charleston Pour House

Main Stage

7:30 doors /8:30 show

Ticket Prices:

$25 advance /$30 day of show

$80 – 4 ticket package

Whitey Morgan and the 78s

In a career spanning 15 years, Morgan has released five studio albums and a live recording from his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Additionally, he has toured relentlessly averaging over 125 shows annually. Rolling Stone has described him as a “Waylon Jennings acolyte.. modern day outlaw [with a] hard hitting blue-collar brand of music” while NPR Music hailed, “Staying close to the sound and subject matter of classic outlaw artists like Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and David Allan Coe, Morgan is poised to lead this hand-worn brand of country to the next generation.” His most recent LP, Sonic Ranch (2015), was released to critical acclaim and praised by Detroit Free Press as, “a bold well-crafted album that doesn’t forsake the gritty undercurrent running through Morgan’s stuff.”

Whitey Morgan and the 78’s anticipated new album, self-produced by Morgan, was recorded in the Neve Room at famed Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Texas. Featured on the record are collaborations with acclaimed songwriters Travis Meadows and Ward Davis plus a cover of ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid.” Alongside Morgan, the 78’s consist of Brett Robinson (pedal steel guitar), Joey Spina (guitar), Alex Lyon(bass) and Eric Savage (drums).

Of the recording, Morgan shares, “It’s not like my vision happened overnight. I’ve been chipping away at it forever. It’s slowly evolving and it’s going in a little bit different direction. It’s not so straightforward anymore. This record definitely has a wider path, it’s broader, but it still sounds like a Whitey Morgan record.” With grandparents from Tennessee and Kentucky and hometown roots in Flint, Michigan, Morgan’s family geography has factored into his approach to music.

Sam Morrow 

Two years before releasing Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down — the most guitar-driven, groove-heavy album of Sam Morrow’s catalog, with songs that roll just as hard as they rock — Morrow hit the highway in support of his third record, Concrete & Mud. Despite the 28-year-old being a road warrior for years, this time things felt different. Joined by a band of amplified roots-rockers, Morrow spent eighteen months traveling halfway across the world, playing Concrete & Mud songs to the biggest audiences of his career. By the time the dust settled, he’d become a staple of Americana radio on both sides of the Atlantic, with outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR singing his praises.

Those road miles set the stage for Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down, a modern album that revisits — and reshapes — the primordial sounds of hip-shaking rock & roll. These nine songs are rooted in grease, grit, and groove, from the swampy soul of “Round ‘N Round” to the funky syncopation of “Rosarita” to the hook-laden rock of “Money Ain’t a Thing.” There’s hardly an acoustic guitar in sight; instead, amplifiers and guitar pedals rule the roost, with everything driven forward by percussive rhythms that owe as much to R&B as country music. Written and recorded in the wake of Concrete & Mud‘s acclaimed tour, Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down doubles down on the electrified fire and fury of Sam Morrow’s live shows, with a road-ready band joining him on every song.

This is the sharpest songwriting of Sam Morrow’s career, rooted in a mix of autobiography and wry social commentary. Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down is an album that focuses not only on what its frontman says, but how he says it.

“My favorite rock & roll is the stuff that has groove to it,” says Morrow, a native Texan who kickstarted his music career after moving to Los Angeles, where he’s since become one of the city’s biggest roots-music exports. “I want to make music like that — funky, layered rock where it’s not just the songwriting that’s important, but the presentation, too.”

To find the right presentation, Morrow turned to drummer Matt Tecu, whose versatility as a percussionist had landed him a spot in the documentary Echo in the Canyon, backing up West Coast icons like Jakob Dylan, Brian Wilson and Neil Young. The two had spent months on the road together, touring their way from coast to coast, steadily growing Morrow’s sound into something that nodded to — but was no longer defined by — the country music he’d grown up with. Looking to funnel the spirit of those concerts into a studio recording, Morrow asked Tecu to send him a series of drum beats, which the frontman then turned into songs with help from co-producer Eric Corne. The grooves served as building blocks for the music that followed, anchoring Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down in a rhythmic, full-bodied sound whose mix of country, rock, and funk influences nodded to Morrow’s genre-bending heroes: Little Feat, Los Lobos, Queens of the Stone Age, and even David Bowie.

While recording the album at an L.A.-area studio owned by The Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger, Morrow and Corne embraced their experimental side, focusing on layered arrangements that were as unique as the songs themselves. They added a T. Rex-worthy, fuzz-rock riff to the title track. They punctuated “Rosarita” with a slide guitar wrapped in wah-wah wooziness. They filled “Round ‘N Round” with blue notes and swung swagger. Over six days, they pieced together the Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down tracklist, with help from guest musicians like guitarist Doug Pettibone and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, both veterans of Lucinda Williams’ band. The result is a record that builds a bridge between Morrow’s command as a frontman and bandleader — a record, in other words, that pairs sharply-written insight from a songwriter at the top of his game with the raw, rocking slash-and-burn of a band stocked with roots-music heavyweights.

Touring the world will widen your perspective. Morrow still shines a light on his own experience with Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down, whose songs spin true-life stories of new relationships, old flames, the battle to remain upbeat during downtrodden times, and the lingering temptation of the vices that once clouded his vision. He switches to a wider lens on several songs, though, penning lyrics about a modern world obsessed with Instagram filters and virtual interactions.

“I’m taking my own flaws, and flaws we have socially, and poking fun of them a bit,” he explains. “I’ve been known to have songs that are really serious and grim, but that’s not exactly who I am. I’ve just always had an aversion to doing what everyone else is doing. It’s this punk-rock attitude, where if you tell me I’m supposed to do something specific, I’m gonna do something else. Maybe that’s a character defect…but it is what it is.”

It’s no character defect. With Gettin’ By on Gettin’ Down, Sam Morrow reminds us that the things that set him apart are the very same things that help him stand out.

* Show is 21+. Attendees under the age of 21 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Attendees under 21 will be subject to a $5 surcharge. The surcharge must be paid in cash at the door on the day of the event.