Wasn't That A Time! And Waiting for RB Morris

Not loving this week so far. I'm trying all that living in the present---appreciating what you have crap but sometimes it's not quite enough. I know, I know...I'm incredibly lucky with about a billion and two things in my life. I DO believe that. It's just that one billion and three, and one billion and four that are grabbing at me. And then Pete Seeger died. I started watching this video that my friend Kirsten Jansen Dougan posted but I began to cry....don't know why really. Maybe you can watch it and tell me if it's good.

Please, please, please pay up for RB Morris this Saturday, and please...if you could invite a friend or two that would be great. I am REALLY looking forward to this show. Somehow shows at this time of year are more neccessary than ever. The woman I go through to book RB described him as a "dear person and dynamic performer" and I loved that description. It made me want to be a dear person.....and dynamic something or other. And don't forget...it won't be this FREAKING cold come Saturday...AND there will be incredibly healing, warm soups AND free cookbooks.

And someday maybe we'll say "Wasn't that a time!"

A nice write up about RB from a couple of years ago Knoxville.com. LOVE the Billy Joe Shaver quote.

R.B. Morris says he wouldn't trade places with anyone.

"I have a charmed life," says Morris, over breakfast at Pete's on Union Avenue. "I like this city. I love walking in this city. I'm building my own thing. I have a beautiful wife, a lovely daughter. I really do feel blessed."

Morris is as much a part of Knoxville as the sidewalks, the brick buildings and dogwoods. Over the past five decades he's been part of rock bands and poetry readings. He's written plays, published an arts paper, helped erect a park in memory of James Agee, recorded albums, published books and gained an international following.

If you want to hear what he's been creating recently, you'll have to see a Morris appearance.

"In the last few years I've worked harder and produced more in various directions, but I haven't gotten as much out," says Morris.

His most recent recording is the EP "Empire." John Prine loved the title cut so much that he covered the song. Morris has two albums in the planning stages, including one with famed producer Hal Willner.

His most recent collection of poems is called "The Littoral Zone." He has an essay in the upcoming collection "Naked Lunch at 50" which will be published in France later this year, and he has two books waiting for a publisher.

Artists are becoming their own businesses, their own industries.

"That's what I am - such as it is," says Morris. "If I can just get this month's bills paid ... "

Morris isn't complaining. He lives frugally and turned down some lucrative offers in order to keep his artistic integrity.

Music, he says, has changed from when Hank Williams, the Beatles and Bob Dylan became stars. Now, they come from "American Idol."

"It's almost embarrassing to be associated with the music business right now," says Morris.

It was different when he was growing up in North Knoxville in the 1960s. Aside from the greats who appeared on radio, he was surrounded by local musicians.

"When I was a kid Barry "Byrd" Burton, Russell Smith (later of the Amazing Rhythm Aces), Roger Smith, they'd all be walking down the streets," says Morris. "You know, I'd check out their every move."

Morris' appreciation of singer-songwriter Hank Williams and novelist/critic James Agee began early. Morris' father took him to the premiere of "All the Way Home," the film adaptation of Agee's "A Death in the Family" that was partially filmed in Knoxville. As an adult Morris wrote a play about Agee ("The Man Who Lives Here Is Loony") and both Williams and Agee figure in to the title song for Morris' album "Take That Ride."

"What I tried to learn from those people is to take the true path," says Morris. "I don't want to kill myself. I don't want to be like James Agee and die in the backseat of a cab, but I do want to pursue the best stuff."

While most of Morris' life has been spent communicating, there was a short period where he became a bit of hermit. If learned something about himself from the experience, he also learned something about the power of music.

Morris would go into the mountains and sometimes become lost.

"I'd get scared in the middle of the night and I found that singing helped," he says. "You'll read about these old circuit rider preachers who'd be traveling alone at night. They'd sing and the Native Americans would leave them alone. They'd cover themselves with the shield of singing."

He adds that maybe the Native Americans just thought the preachers were crazy, but something worked.

Morris still wants to make an impact in art, "shake the world up," as he says. But respect from peers is more rewarding than commercial gain. Morris' praises have been sung by John Prine, Tom T. Hall, Lucinda Williams and Billy Joe Shaver and many others. Morris recalls one time after Morris played a song for Shaver Shaver slapped his hand against his leg and said, "R.B., you know what you are? You're an artiste!"

"When you can't have all of it," says Morris, "I'll take that."