There’s a Memphis that exists solely in music, the place the twentieth century by no means ended, and the mahogany coronary heart of Boomer Americana nonetheless kilos. It’s a metropolis the place legends—Johnny Money and Solar Information within the ’50s; Isaac Hayes and Stax within the ’60s; Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, and lots of extra—as soon as lived, and may once more, if solely their footsteps, reverb, and room tone could possibly be completely recreated. For musicians, specifically, it’s a sort of mecca: Paul Simon sang about Graceland with an previous Solar-style “touring rhythm” on his large, midlife report, which impressed him to lastly go see the Mississippi Delta together with his waking eyes. After which there was Marc Cohn, who parlayed a mad sprint via Elvis’ property and Al Inexperienced’s church into an anomalous 1991 hit, “Strolling in Memphis.” It was crass, blatant musical tourism, but it surely was rousing by itself phrases, and Cohn had the braveness to plainly voice the query that haunts all who stroll across the metropolis’s hallowed grounds: “However do I actually really feel the best way I really feel?”
This Is a {Photograph}, the putting new album by Kevin Morby, is partly a doc of his personal Memphis imaginative and prescient quest. With respect to depth and high quality, it’s a lot nearer to Simon than Cohn: polished and certain, however filled with coronary heart and wild touches; broad in emotional scope, however pierced with thematic chutes and ladders; plush with interval furnishings, however organized in thrilling, inviting methods. Morby seems like Dan Bejar doing his most respectful Dylan, with that wily little wheeze. By infusing his suave folk-rock with the unfailingly pleasing sounds of classic gospel and soul, Morby has made an formidable report that proudly stands out in his sprawling catalog.
Morby begins This Is a {Photograph} by observing a magnetic image of his father, younger and shirtless—“a window to the previous,” as he sings. The driving guitar lick and brisk handclaps appear geared to seize listeners who may need brushed previous the Kansas Metropolis journeyman’s half-dozen albums, nicely obtained however usually inconspicuous by design, over the past decade. He had been drawn to the photograph within the wake of a foul medical scare. When this jolt of mortality was adopted by the brand new anxiousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, Morby fled to Memphis, the place life and afterlife appeared so intently entwined. Finally, he would end recording the music there with the imprimatur of collaborators from Stax and Solar.
Whereas spending just a few weeks within the historic Peabody Lodge, Morby visited a number of websites of American tragedy: the Lorraine Motel, the place Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; Graceland, the place Elvis slowly died; and the precise financial institution of the Mississippi River the place the water closed over Jeff Buckley. There, he recorded the lapping sound that divides the eerie electrical blues of “Disappearing” from the prismatic, pellucid “A Coat of Butterflies.” A direct deal with to Buckley, “Butterflies” is ravishing as vivid sprigs of harp and guitar, fragrant tendrils of saxophone, and singsong harmonies swirl within the pooling embrace of celebrated jazz drummer Makaya McCraven. It’s the proper medium during which to droop Morby’s supple phrasing, the place sturdy finish rhymes maintain all method of expressive pauses and leaps firmly in place.
