The name Russell Morris probably won’t mean much to the majority of you reading. But Google ‘The Real Thing’ and flashbacks to ‘The Dish’ will start flooding your memories.
“Australia has an amazing history of yarns; from Banjo Patterson and Henry Lawson, through to Paul Kelly and Bryce Courtney, the Australian experience has always been retold in story," Russell Morris — the Australian rock and roll legend, ARIA Hall of Famer and veteran of 50 years — says.
Since achieving mountains of success in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s — partnering with Australia’s best record producer Molly Meldrum and reaching the peak of his success with ‘The Real Thing’ – Morris has aged and evolved like you’d expect from any Aussie rock legend worth his salt… without giving a shit. “I was going for 30 years without success, I tried to do commercial albums and no one was interested, so I thought it was about time for me to please myself, because I don't care anymore,” says Morris with a laugh. “No one wanted to buy anything, no one wanted to play anything… so I might as well record things that I want to record.”
Despite the success for Morris earlier in his career, the freedom that came with creating a unique voice with history didn’t mean an easy birth for his newest album. "I thought no one would be interested it, but I didn't care; it was an interesting project and I was going to really love doing it. I did the album and when it was finished no one wanted it; I pressed 500 copies to sell at shows and I was happy with it, that’s how it started. Then at the 11th hour Ambition Records put their hand up [to release the album]. I felt like Lazarus; I was dead and I got up and walked.”
After 50 odd years of experience in the rock & roll industry Morris returned to his roots and liberated himself by not trying, instead just doing. “I wanted to go back to where I started, I wanted to go back to blues and roots music and just do what I really love. It’s often the times you don’t try to do anything that things just end up happening."
Morris couldn’t be more right: in 2008 he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and in 2013 released 'Sharkmouth', the highest charting album of his career and the first in a trilogy about the untold underbelly of Australia’s history. “People are afraid to talk about their past in case a skeleton jumps out of the closet. It's the good, the bad and the ugly: that's our tapestry, what made us who we are. These stories are really important and you can’t not look at them; we've got to look at who we are and what we are and why we are what we are.
“I was in Sydney looking at the paper and there was a photo of a man named Thomas Archer from the 1916 era and he was being arrested. It was a fantastic photo and it kept drawing me in. It was almost like an epiphany; like he reached across the span of time and grabbed me and yelled 'if you're going write about blues and roots music son, write about me; I'm Australian’. I’m not American so I don't try and write pseudo-half-baked-American-copies. I write about the things I know and the things I grew up with and the things that all Australians grew up with because that is where our roots lie.”
His recent work has seen Morris add some rhythm and blues to his bag of rock and roll tricks taking inspiration by fellow rock legends, The Rolling Stones. “It all started with the first Rolling Stones album for me, that is real rhythm and blues. What they call rhythm and blues now is absolute crap. It was almost like a slap in the face with a cold fish for my old fans because people expect you to do the same thing and don't change, then all of a sudden you do something that is totally leftfield for you and it shocks some people; my feeling with music is that you have to make some people hate what you're doing then you know some people are going to really love it with a passion.”
On the back of the two most successful albums of a career spanning more than five decades and a liberating attitude that transcends the normal ‘dry bowl of muesli’ stigma that country music and Aussie swag tales are connoted with, Morris is hitting the Gympie Music Muster to showcase the best music of his career at Australia’s largest music and camping festival — and you better bet Morris is keen as a Kookaburra laughing in the morning for this one. “The Gympie Muster is great, I've done it twice before. The last I was there we played in the blues tent and I really loved it,” Morris says.
“This year we are up there for two days which sounds spectacular. I really love playing festivals. The people are always in good moods; they are there to see the music and no other reason. It's just a really lovely environment and a lot of fun.”
Written by Benjamin Pratt
Russell Morris Tour Dates
Sat Aug 16 - Seymour Centre (Chippendale)Fri Aug 22 - The Gov (Adelaide)
Sat Aug 23 - Regal Theatre (Cosmopolis)
Fri Aug 29 - Gympie Music Muster
Sat Aug 30 - Gympie Music Muster
Sat Sep 13 - Kedron Wavell Services Club (Brisbane)
Sat Oct 5 - Great Southern Blues Festival (Beauty Point)
Sun Oct 6 - Caloundra Music Festival
Sun Oct 13 - Rock The Boat 4 (Manly West)
