Drunken Prayer will likely bring to mind The Band for a lot of listeners, with the sense of place and tradition. But Morgan Geer’s songs and his singing often suggest a kinship with artists like Bobby Charles or Doug Sahm, musicians with Southern roots, with a yip and break to their voices, and notes of sadness offset by a wicked sense of humor.
Drunken Prayer (AKA Freakwater’s Morgan Geer) is releasing its fifth album, Cordelia Elsewhere, mixed by Mitch Easter (Let’s Active, REM), on Friday, April 5 via Deer Lodge Records. The music on Cordelia Elsewhere is a direct, if slightly eccentric, descendent of outlaw country. These are stories of superstition, civil war and “triple stacks blocking out the sun”. The more upbeat numbers on the album were hatched on a tour across Europe with Morgan’s other band, revered alt-country goths Freakwater. The rest were finished on a trip through the Bible Belt that began on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The songs collectively bear witness to life on frighteningly shaky ground.
Morgan Christopher Geer was born in San Francisco and grew up traveling around the US, following his folk-singing mother. Today he splits time between Portland, OR and Asheville, NC. He’s lived in nearly every region of the country and sounds like it. His is American music – straight, no irony chaser.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the music video for “Fifty Foot Locust”. Set to an odd visual of masked musicians playing in a wooded area and shot through a distorted lens, the song is a slow and poignant ditty that feels almost like it could be an old children’s song. While Drunken Prayer can certainly throw down some blistering Southern rock n’ soul, this is a more delicately picked, intimate song that shows Geer’s versatility as a songwriter with its almost fairy tale-like lyrics and a folksy fiddle to boot. Fans of acts like Geer’s frequent touring mates The Handsome Family will find plenty to love with a this playful gothic folk song.
WATCH:
Cordelia Elsewhere is out on April 5th. For more music and info visit drunkenprayer.com.
