Live Music: Mike Munson, Molly Maher & Sarah Morris

MIKE MUNSON
When asked, Mike Munson (Winona, MN) tells people he plays American music. With over a decade of long drives to well-lit, expansive stages, tiny dive bars, and everything in between, Munson has seen plenty of the country that influences his songwriting. He is a listener first, soaking up the chord changes and non-traditional tunings of players from rural Mississippi to Chicago, studying the mastery of Fred McDowell and Charlie Christian alike.

Munson’s song writing leaves much to interpretation and strongly invites Midwestern toe-tappers to get out on the dance floor. He brings dark themes and heavy rhythms to his work, echoing the traditional country blues that provide the undercurrent of his creativity. Having recorded at the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, Mississippi and been mentored by Grammy nominee Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Munson has come face to face with the living history of the music of the delta. Munson’s sound is marked by a reverence for this historic southern idiom, which is laden with intricate finger picking and hypnotic rhythms. His playing highlights the similarities between blues, American primitive guitar and early rock and roll.

Munson released his seventh full-length album, “Underwood” in 2023. A solo project focused on blending new material and traditional tunes over the course of two short days in the studio. Utilizing thoughtful, unconventional microphone placement while avoiding overdubs and compiled takes, the sonics harken back to the juke joints and early electrified recording sessions of country blues.

Though best known as a solo performer, in 2023 the Mike Munson Trio was formed in collaboration with bassist Nick Salisbury and drummer Lars-Erik Larson. The group was immediately well-received, headlining regional festivals in the winter of 2024. The band builds on Munson’s rich catalog adding modern jazz and traditional folk songs to the mix.

In 2024 Munson will release the acoustic, instrumental album “Perihelion Day” (Liatris Records) under the moniker upup/OVER as he continues to expand his creative playing field. Inspired by time and space and the distance between humans and nature, upup/OVER explores big issues without letting words get in the way.
https://www.facebook.com/mikemunson
http://www.mikemunson.net

MOLLY MAHER
Molly Maher’s music resides on the border Americana roots and big city grooves moving beautifully between them, blending simmering cools with twangy lament-filled spirit, guitar driven country-folk-jam with a blues swagger.

Molly has explored the intersections of American music and global rhythms with curiosity of and returned to sing about it with an authentic and sage voice. Her live performances are an unforgettable experience. An incomparable singer and songwriter with compelling depth and soul and cutting lyrics draws from the deep roots of all music. Writing songs that ring true her singing is a fine balance of deep and soulful, somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Bonnie Raitt.
https://mollymaher.com/
https://www.facebook.com/molly.maher.16

SARAH MORRIS
Sarah Morris has a habit of missing the forest. From the day the Minneapolis based singer-songwriter picked up a guitar, armed with the bone-deep memory of her parents’ well-loved record collection and rooted in the storytelling fire of a Mary Chapin Carpenter tune, she’s been too busy crafting love letters to the details of the trees. Sarah’s endearingly honest, expertly penned songs encourage audiences to pull away from the big picture and get caught up in the magic of our everyday minutia, the rainy day ache in her sunlit voice granting us permission to escape into stories at once hauntingly familiar and uniquely her own.

A graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Sarah spent the first years of her career in Nashville, losing herself in the art of writing timeless Americana melodies. “Sarah Morris [is] a bright, clear, brilliant songwriter,” wrote Jon Hunt of L’Etoile Magazine. “…pure and crisp and perfect.” In the years since her 2011 debut album, Lonely or Free, Sarah’s career, like her songs, has been overflowing with delicious details. Her albums Ordinary Things (2015), Hearts in Need of Repair (2017), and All Mine (2020) recorded with band mates Thomas Nordlund, Andrew Foreman, and Lars-Erik Larson with producer Eric Blomquist, earned international airplay and considerable critical acclaim, reaching notable positions on both the Americana Music Association and Euro Americana charts. In 2016, Sarah was a top four finalist in the NewSong Music Contest at Lincoln Center in New York City, 2nd place winner of the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC, and an Americana semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition. In 2018, she went on to win the Kerrville New Folk Competition, collecting an honorable mention at the Telluride Troubadour contest along the way. More recently, Sarah was named Midwest Country Music Organization’s Songwriter of the Year for the third time.
https://sarahmorrismusic.com/
https://linktr.ee/sarahmorrismusic
https://www.facebook.com/sarahmorrismusic