Russell Morris returns to Blues at Bridgetown happening from Friday-Sunday, November 11-12. He speaks to PAUL DENNY about being both now and then.
Back in 2013 Russell Morris played Blues at Bridgetown for the first time. At that point he had just released the acclaimed Sharkmouth album and it was the very start of what has been a career renaissance with a trilogy of history-based albums (2014’s Van Diemen’s Land and 2015’s Red Dirt, Red Heart).
Morris was yet to reach those heights of acclaim and recognition but he won the 2013 People’s Choice Award at Bridgetown and has been back every year since.
“The great thing about Blues at Bridgetown is that it was one of the first blues festivals that recognised what I was doing,” he recalls. “The others sort of kept me at arm’s length for a bit. Bridgetown thought, ‘hey this thing’s got credibility, let’s do it’, and they put me in and it changed a lot of things for me. It was really lovely for people to sense what I was doing.
“Festivals are a great thing for that because people are only there for the music. It really is the most ideal situation for musicians to play in and it’s a great feeling because people are there to hear what you’ve got to offer.”
With three acclaimed albums in recent years added to an historic back catalogue, it’s a worthy challenge to come up with a setlist that pleases all comers.
“We sort of tend to carve it up because they don’t all fit in with each other,” Morris says of almost a half-century of songs. “Some people who are there always want to hear the old stuff. Some people always live in the past. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, so while I’ve been writing about history, it gives them a sense of my history as well.”
Sharkmouth meanwhile, has been released this year in the US to wide interest. What was looking like the end of the three-abum cycle has managed to go right back to the beginning…
“It’s pretty nice,” he notes. “I wasn’t sure, because it’s kind of like taking coals to Newcastle, because the home of the blues is America, particularly the South. When we released it over there I thought, ‘Oh they’re not gonna be up for this’, but we haven’t received one bad review. It was fabulous, such a great experience to play our version of the blues to an American market who really, really liked it. So, it’s a lovely feeling. We’re going back in May, so that’ll be good.”
At the upcoming ARIA Awards Morris is not only nominated for his Red Dirt, Red Heart album, but will step up to the podium to be inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame. It’s highly unusual for a Hall of Fame inductee to also be nominated for their current work in an ARIA year.
“Yeah that’s pretty good,” Morris considers. “When you’re inducted it’s almost like getting a gold watch, like they’re saying, ‘you’ve done your bit, you had your time in the sun, now just disappear’. That’s normally what happens, so to be able to be current as well is a lovely feeling.”
