MP3 Mo McMorrow - Mona Lisas Don´t Cry

Eloquence, spirit, wondrous musicality, and echoes of Ireland swirl through these songs with a voice of honey, velvet and steel.

10 MP3 Songs in this album (37:58) !
Related styles: Folk: Folk Pop, Rock: Americana, Featuring Drums

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Details:
Mo McMorrow is a well-traveled whirlwind of creative energy. In song, this energy translates to a nuanced brand of Irish-Americana with beautiful vocal melodies, braced by confident and surprising percussion, and steeped in transatlantic themes of place and ancestry. McMorrow's new album, Never Alone, draws from her experiences with changing relationships, constant goodbyes, reconstructed histories. The result is a freshly sincere collection of songs whose lyrics, embrace the sorrows of life rather than glossing them over.

After growing up in Toronto, McMorrow moved to Australia to finish her post-grad studies in painting. From there she set off around the world aiming to travel for twelve months but fell hard for her first stop â Ireland â and stayed for 11 years. It was there she first took her songs public. Mo says, âIf youâve got a song in you, the Irish will get it out of you!â and she started singing in sessions gigs and residencies all across the West. In 2008 she headed for Austin Texas searching for the right place to record. She has now emerged with her first rock solid offering.

McMorrow's range as a visual and performing artist, as well as her experience moving across continents, lend a remarkable depth to Mona Lisasâ¦. Musically, the cadences of Austin and Ireland are evident: banjos, harmonicas, acoustics guitars, and dobros lay the folk foundation, and one could as easily imagine these sounds spilling out of a smoky club in south Austin as drifting out of a centuries-old pub in Ireland ("Till the Rain Clouds Come"). Lyrically, positive lessons of independence and self-reliance rise from the ashes of past relationships ("Never Alone"). A reverence for land and family ("This Field of Mine"), perhaps a plank in the bridge between Ireland and Texas, is a key element to McMorrow's universe. And though a continuing theme in these songs is leaving people and places behind, McMorrow responds with life-affirming understanding, the realization that all emotions, even sadness, enrich the human condition ("Mona Lisaâs Donât Cry"). Her vocals conjure music legends and newcomers alike: there's the playfulness of Dolly ("The Wolf is Gone") and the quirk and intimacy of Nancy Griffith (âPolished Metalâ). There's the melodramatic, stylish nod to Roy Orbison and vintage crooners. And there's a vulnerability akin to more recent artists like Joanna Newsom or Zooey Deschanel.

From all of these inspirations, McMorrow masterfully presents a cohesive album. She teamed up with Justin Douglas of Shine Studios in Austin, who co-produced and engineered Never Alone, and she banded together a backing group of Austin music heavy hitters: Gurf Morlix, Eliza Gilkyson, Cindy Cashdollar, Ray Bonneville and Betty Soo. All involved seem to share McMorrow's vision for this album as the tunes maintain their integrity and uniqueness throughout.