Michelle Morrison is hardly a stranger to New Brunswick’s music scene. Morrison has been a constant presence and has been performing on and off since 2013, beginning with the group Sawmill Creek. If it seems a bit past due for her to be releasing any recorded music, she’s making up for lost time with two folky new singles: “Quarter After Midnight” and “A Silver Lining.”
“I wanted to release two songs at once because I really just couldn’t choose. […] I felt picking just a single song wasn’t going to be able to accurately represent me as an artist or my music as a whole,” says Morrison, who ultimately decided to err on the side of versatility. “Quarter After Midnight” is a bright banjo tune while “A Silver Lining” has Morrison playing both guitar and mandolin, allowing her to show off her skills as a multi-instrumentalist.
While Morrison says her album will be an eclectic collection of songs that are finally working their way out into the world some after spending years in the hopper, these two singles are more recent. Both tracks have that decidedly contemporary characteristic: that little thread of COVID that has permeated our cultural output.
“I’ve been writing songs for a long time now and have yet to record anything, so the album is essentially a collection of what I consider my best songs yet,” says Morrison.
“A Silver Lining” is the more obviously darker and cynical tune of the pair, though as the title suggests, does come with a silver lining. At the outset of the pandemic, when the world was forced to shut down and our depencies as consumers became painfully apparent, it seemed like the planet was at least given a bit of a breather.
“‘A Silver Lining’ was written at the beginning of COVID and addresses the feelings of uncertainty we were all facing and continue to face when we are placed in these totally unprecedented situations that sort of force us to restructure the way we function as a societal collective,” explains Morrison. “The ‘silver lining’ was that due to Covid the natural environment started to heal, pollution was reduced because we couldn’t continue to operate at our full capitalistic capacity.”
“Quarter After Midnight” finds its inspiration in woes that extend back well beyond the pandemic but finds those challenges compounded by the circumstances. It’s a banjo-fueled lament for any unfortunate souls who finds themselves adrift in the dating pool.
Morrison explains she wrote the song at quarter after midnight after finding herself in bed, alone.
“I was living in Sussex over the summer and had recently gotten ghosted by someone and it sort of represents the late night thoughts of someone going through an emotionally tough time like that,” say Morrison.
The two singles, and each song to appear on Morrison’s upcoming debut full-length album, Ghosts, are a glimpse into the moment in Morrison’s life that, in some way and for better or worse, really stuck with her.
“They are memories that are ‘haunting’,” laughs Morrison. “Not necessarily in a bad way, but they stick around and are always kind of present with me. Rhey were pivotal times in my life that shaped me or changed my life direction a bit.”
Michelle Morrison’s album, Ghosts, is expected to be released sometime later in 2021.