Bio
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Bio |
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Morris decided that music therapy would be the career outlet for her musical skills, but eventually found it to be too demanding a career to allow her to focus on her own path as a performer. She left the profession in 1997 to concentrate on music solely as an artist. Fortunately, one of her therapy jobs was in Boston, where Morris was witness to talented songsters such as Peter Mulvey, Jennifer Kimball, Joe Panzetta and Chris Trapper (of the Pushstars). Exposure to such well-crafted songwriting was the catalyst for Melissa to start writing again.
Morris returned to Texas for two years to start honing her lyric and guitar skills before she returned to Boston in 1999, this time as an artist. She worked her way through local open mic nights and played the subways, eventually assembling the cast for Shape of Things to Come -- some of the brightest talent in a burgeoning Boston acoustic scene including Hugh McGowan, and David Franz (musicians and co-producers), Burt LaFountain, Mike Burrows, and Nolan McKelvey.
Shape of Things to Come is a rich, versatile debut, slipping effortlessly from the laid-back sound of "Rooftop" and the spacey funk of the title track to ethereal acoustic ballads like "For You." Morris's voice is as versatile as her music, thanks in part to the classical training she received during college. She handles the jazzy "What Makes You Think" as easily as she does her smoky cover of the Police classic "Tea in the Sahara". And though songs like "Breathing Room" and "Fall Into You" are intensely personal, Morris avoids using her music as an excuse to vent on a captive audience. "I try to avoid using my music as a channel for angst or despair. I think that becomes tedious for a listener after a while, no matter how universal the topic." Instead, Morris leaves herself open to express her most meaningful experiences, big or small. "Sharing a smile with a friend during a great conversation, watching a sunrise from a rooftop or watching the first leaf fall from a tree in autumn can be as much of a catalyst for a song as a major event can be." Shape of Things to Come is full of such moments, large and small.
Morris has performed regularly in and around the Boston area for the past two years. She was one of 200 acts chosen from over 1000 submissions to perform at the NEMO Music Showcase and Conference in Boston in April 2000, and she just completed her tenure as the host of the Burren Pub's Sunday Night Singer/Songwriter Series. Morris says that she plans to take much of 2002 to focus on writing songs for what will eventually be a follow-up CD. Since she doesn’t do anything on a small scale, you’ll know when she’s back on the club scene – there’s no doubt about that.
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Melissa Morris arrived in Boston in March 1999, for the second time, by way of Texas. She has spent a life following her passion for music and Shape of Things to Come, Morris's debut album, is full of the influences and experiences she has been collecting since childhood. Some of her earliest musical memories include her father playing original cast recordings of musicals by Sondheim and standards by legends like Sinatra and the Gershwins. During her teens, Morris's collection of musical influences expanded greatly, with cornerstone artists including Bruce Springsteen, the Police and Peter Gabriel. She remembers listening to 'Nebraska' or 'Synchronicity' and imagining herself in the all of the song stories, and then turning around and listening to 'Security' and being equally transformed by the power of the world instruments and rhythms in all of the songs.