Hello reader,
Welcome back.
Today, we’re going to delve into the primarily LA-based but also Kansas-based Kevin Morby. Born in Texas, Morby was raised all over as his father’s job with GM relocated the family a few times. The family settled in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kevin’s love for Kansas and the Midwest began. At 17, he wanted to see and experience NYC, so he moved to Brooklyn. Morby was playing bass guitar at this point and joined the noise-folk group Woods. He then joined forces with friend and short-term roommate Cassie Ramone (of Vivian Girls), and the two formed The Babies, releasing two albums. Morby then moved to LA and penned his first solo album as a homage to NYC. Harlem River (released in 2013), followed by a second album on Woodsist Records, Still Life (2014), and by now Morby was gaining a following and making arguably better and better music as he refined his songwriting and songcraft. His studio albums were going from favorable reviews to critical acclaim. 2016 saw his first studio album on the Dead Oceans label, Singing Saw, followed by City Music (2017), Oh My God (2019), Sundowner (2020), and This Is a Photograph (2022). It’s a great discography that you should look into after you finish this review.
And Morby’s eighth studio album Little Wide Open is out via the fabulous Dead Oceans label on Friday, May 15th, for your listening pleasure. According to a press release for the album, “For Kevin Morby, the ‘little wide open’ is the big sky, the small lives, it’s his origins in the Midwest, and every duty and modesty and familiarity and isolation: the land, the people, and the parts of that inside him. There’s something unintentionally musical about the Midwest: cicadas chirping in the trees, a train passing, a tornado siren going off. If you listen, there are these almost ominous sounds taking place beneath the wide-open sky—its ugliness and its beauty and how the two are often working together simultaneously.”
The album was produced by the incredibly talented musician, collaborator, songwriter, curator, and producer, Aaron Dessner. A frequent IT guy in the scene, he improves every piece of music he touches. The story goes, “In the summer of 2024, Dessner had asked Morby to support The National at their London show in Crystal Palace Park. Shortly after, Dessner—who was on a hot streak, having produced albums for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Gracie Abrams—reached out to Morby to say he’d love to produce his next album. They began recording at Aaron’s Long Pond Studio in Stuyvesant, NY, early in 2025 and finished in September of that year.”
Dessner joins in on multiple instruments, and Morby’s most frequent collaborators on this album besides Dessner are: Amelia Meath (backing vocals on three songs), Andrew Barr (drums, percussion), Justin Vernon (siren vocals on “Badlands”, guitar on “Natural Disaster”, Katie Gavin (background vocals on “Little Wide Open” and “Dandelion”, Lucinda Williams (vocals on “Natural Disaster”), Meg Duffy (guitar, bass, percussion on “100,000”) and Matt Davidson (violin or fiddle on multiple tracks). It’s an incredible roster of musicians. According to the press release for the album, Little Wide Open, “has been described by Morby as the third in a trilogy of releases, following 2020’s Sundowner and 2022’s This Is a Photograph, which catalogued his time in the Midwest after moving back to Kansas City.” I love how Morby’s discography is structured to capture his time at specific locations that are relevant and important to him.
The final bit I’d like to share from the press release before we talk about the songs individually is this: “As Rachel Kushner writes of Morby in the album’s accompanying essay: ‘It’s about time, about feeling like he has shifted from nostalgia and the losing game, losing but beautiful, of holding onto the past. He has accepted that time is ceaselessly flowing, and you can’t stop it. Instead, he feels like he’s riding it. He’s riding passenger with time.'”
And now for some hype for your ears and eyes via Kevin Morby’s YouTube channel:
Be attentive to see if you can hear Justin Vernon and Amelia Meath’s vocals as well as Morby’s. Check out the lyric video for the opening song on the album, “Badlands”:
(All credits and rights to Kevin Morby)
The first single that was released and the song that made me fall in love with the album, the video for the absolutely gorgeous song “Die Young”:
(All credits and rights to Kevin Morby)
Caleb Heron and Kevin Morby in a video? And Katie Crutchfield? And Tara Raghuveer, too? Hell yeah, that looked like a great time. The video for the warm, earworm-worthy song, “Javelin”:
(All credits and rights to Kevin Morby)
Overall, Little Wide Open perfectly encapsulates what Kansas and the Midwest mean to Morby. It’s a beautiful testament that we’ll always have. For those listeners in the Midwest, there’s an additional layer of relatability and sentimentality, I think many will appreciate. I think Morby displays improved songwriting and crafting on this release. He was good to great before. But this album shows off more of what great songwriting for Morby looks like. No complaints, all kudos. I think it’s an album that has a few songs that will grab and hold your attention upon the first listen, and the remainder of the songs will grow on you immensely after a few more listens. Little Wide Open features a lot of sweetness, reverence, exploration, appreciation, and more, even amongst bleaker moments of reality. There are plenty of earworm-worthy songs and phrases within this album. Listener, you will find them and be singing them around your house, office, in your car, and more. In the best ways, not like a curse of a song you can’t wait to get out of your head.
This is an album with an overall good vibe paired with a ton of substance and quality musicianship. Kudos to those collaborators, as each vocalist and musician brought a ton to their songs. The femme vocals paired with Morby’s created some of the best listening moments on this album. Awesome vocal work by Amelia Meath, Katie Gavin, and the one and only Lucinda Williams. And kudos to Dessner for his impact on crafting, refining, and the instrumentation he added to the songs that gave them more layers and depth in the right spots and amounts.
For all those reasons above, Little Wide Open gets 4.5 out of 5 Scum Drops from me. It’s among my favorite full-length albums released this year. In addition to what I said above, it’s a fucking great album from start to finish. There’s a lot to like about it. I love the three songs that open the album and think they are among the strongest on the album. But take a listen for yourself and see what you think. Add the entire album to at least one of your playlists. I think it’s a perfect album for many things, but a must for a road trip playlist. Especially on a summery, warm day. But also any time of the year. Autumn anyone? Add this album to your collection on the format of your choice. Definitely get the vinyl version to listen to it loud and proud.
I’ll always advocate that you take the time to listen to every album in its entirety. The listening process with Little Wide Open will take an hour of your time from start to finish. Along the way, you won’t be watching your watch, and as you’re immersed in the album, you’ll discover your own favorite songs without the influence or bias of others. After several listens, I found the songs highlighted in green below to be my favorites on this album.
The tracklist for Little Wide Open (song length)
- Badlands (3:54)
- Die Young (3:53)
- Javelin (3:45)
- All Sinners (3:50)
- Natural Disaster (7:09)
- 100,000 (5:13)
- Little Wide Open (8:10)
- Cowtown (3:26)
- Bible Belt (4:18)
- I Ride Passenger (3:51)
- Junebug (3:31)
- Dandelion (3:47)
- Field Guide for the Butterflies (4:35)
Total runtime: 59:12
Check out more of Kevin Morby at his website right here. Visit his Linktree and listen to more music on his TIDAL, Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, and Bandcamp pages. And follow his socials on Instagram and Facebook.
Thank you for reading and supporting good music.
Until next time,
Alex
Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site, scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions and SWT Interviews. And all of our socials.
Questions, feedback, or more? Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com
