 A NEW BALLADEER FOR A NEW GENERATION
“The first time I worked live with Amos Morris I could see something unusual was happening. He had the audience spellbound. No tricks, just a deep rapport. He was talking their language, and they were music to his ears. He seemed to grow taller. I’ve only ever seen that sort of connection once before, and it led to an unparalleled career”
Rod Coe (Slim Dusty’s Music Producer and T.C.B member/band leader for over 20 years)
On June 13 of this year Amos Morris, the young balladeer from Kempsey performed the Slim classic Charleville as part of a special Slim Dusty Tribute in front of an audience of 50 000 at the 2nd NRL State Of Origin game at Telstra Stadium. In nervously preparing himself to perform in front of his biggest audience, no doubt that night he would have reflected back to his northern NSW home town of Kempsey and the local pub where he made his very first public performance just 4 years earlier. This debut occasion was coincidentally again a tribute to a hero of his …Slim Dusty!
In 2003 Amos Morris’ was invited by the local Kempsey Community radio station (Tank FM) to perform 2 songs as part of a special tribute night following the passing of fellow Kempsey balladeer, Slim Dusty….Amos was just 15 years old. A few more local live performances followed and it wasn’t long before word was spreading about this exciting new balladeer, eventually filtering through to Slim’s wife Joy McKean and his daughter Anne Kirkpatrick. It was during the 2004 Hats Off To Country Festival in Tamworth that Joy and Anne saw their first Amos performance; they instantly recognised his potential both as a stage performer and a charismatic musical storyteller. Joy, more or less, then and there took Amos under her wing and for the next 2 years supported and assisted Amos and his mother Juli with developing his career. To quote Joy: “Blessed with a smooth, melodic voice and a warm and natural live stage manner, even at his young age Amos displays a real understanding and a broad appreciation of songs dear to so many Australians…this is very evident in his live shows.”
At just nineteen years old, young bush balladeer Amos Morris, is set to release his much anticipated second album, Sign of the Times. It was just a few months ago Amos signed with Joy and Slim’s Nulla Records label. Nulla was the label established in the 1980’s by Slim Dusty, basically to lend support to some of his bush balladeer mates. The new album was recorded in April in the now legendary Columbia Lane Studio (Slim’s personal studio) and produced by multi-Golden Guitar and ARIA award winner Anne Kirkpatrick. Amos has again written 4 of the songs on the new album with most of the remaining tracks being new songs from some of Australia’s most respected bush ballad writers …the likes of Ernie Constance, Ray Rose, Ian Quinn, Keith Jamieson and John Dohling.
Even though Amos is still very much a rising young artist on the music scene, he has already garnered a strong and devoted fan base as well as receiving great support and friendship from within the Australian country music industry. “As proud as I am of my first album ‘Memories Live On’ and its unexpected success, I feel this new album reflects a more contemporary approach to the traditional bush ballad as the first did. I really hope ‘Sign Of The Times’, while still being enjoyed by traditional country audiences, will also appeal to a younger generation”.
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