Gurf Morlix Plays the Sportsmen's Tavern September 25

          

            Western New York native singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Gurf Morlix returns to what has become his favorite Buffalo honky tonk when he performs a solo show at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 25, at the Sportsmen’s Tavern, 326 Amherst Street near Grant Street in Buffalo.

            The admission will be a rather low $15, and Morlix will be playing songs off his new CD, “Gurf Morlix Finds the Present Tense” (Rootball Records) as well as older material. While Morlix’s tales still sound grim, dry and honest with the search for hope or happiness a long-term tale, he jokes that “the body count is lower on this CD, maybe just two people die.”

            While best know for his work as guitarist, arranger, producer and more with Lucinda Williams (her self-titled album and “Sweet Old World” remain classics), Morlix has taken part in many fine collaborations, from producing to performing, with Warren Zevon, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves, Mary Gauthier, Ian McLagan, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin, Jim Lauderdale, Robert Earl Keen, Blaze Foley and Michael Penn, as well as lifelong friend, very early band mate and occasional collaborator Jim Whitford and the Pine Dogs. And if you’re a movie fan, Morlix was one the major contributors/interviewees in the Blaze Foley documentary, “Duct Tape Messiah,” and was featured in Tom Weber’s great “Troubadour Blues” documentary.

            On “Gurf Morlix Finds the Present Tense,” many of the songs have spare accompaniment, which still fleshes things out a bit more than the starkness of several of Morlix’s previous releases.

Among the stronger songs on this standout CD are “Series of Closing Doors,” in which he sees his choices and the chances of getting out of a bad situation few and far between; spare organ and electric guitar sweeten the song just as much as is needed, as Morlix figures out how to squirm out of this situation. “Present Tense” is a tough, basic roots rocker on which Morlix notes that no one, from individuals to countries, seem to be able to get along anymore, making everyone uneasy; again, Morlix’s electric guitar and organ from either Ian McLagan, Nick Connolly or Patterson Barrett, add the right touches. “Bang Bang Bang” has some light jangly guitar and organ as Morlix sings of how early the glorification of guns and violence reaches a child, in this instance, early cowboy/western television programs and movies: “We’ll shoot anything that moves…we’re a bunch of card-carrying fools.” “These Are My Blues” comes out of virtually nowhere with burning, crushing, foreboding blues and rock, letting us know the song is up to no good: “These are my blues, I’m gonna wallow in them all night long.”

For more information, you can visit www.sportsmenstavern.com or www.gurfmorlix.com