Brooke Moriber~ Q&A!!!

Credit~ Shervin Lainez

–Hello Brooke can you tell us a little bit about yourself before you became a country musician? 

I am a native New Yorker, and I grew up downtown in a very close-knit artistic community in Greenwich Village across the street from Washington Square Park where I was exposed to all different genres of music. I could hear the music from the street musicians coming up through my window since I was a baby. 

I started singing before I knew how to speak, and my first professional gig was when I was 8 years old and landed the role of Little Cosette in Les Miserables on Broadway. It was a pretty thrilling way to get started in the business. When I was 14, I lost my eye sight for four years from a rare eye disease. That’s when I started writing music. It helped me get through the most difficult of times and has been my saving grace ever since. 

·  Who are some of your musical icons? 

Linda Ronstadt is my favorite voice of all time. My parents always played her albums. Jewel, Jennifer Nettles, and a lot of the girls right now like Carly Pearce, Maren Morris, and Miranda Lambert continue to inspire me with the amazing music they are putting out. 

·  What made you want a career in country music? 

I was always drawn to country music and felt like it was my genre even though I was born and raised in New York City. A few years back a manager of mine sent me out to Nashville for a few co-writes and I immediately fell in love with it. Now having signed with Reviver Records and finding my place in the country community I truly feel like I have made a second home there.

·  What is the background story behind your brand-new single “Down to Nothing?” 

I wrote this song with my friend David DeVaul. I had the title in my mind for “Down To Nothing” for a song about being in a relationship with someone who loves you for all your flaws and makes you feel comfortable in your own skin. We came up with a great verse but were stuck on the chorus and stepped away from it for a bit. A few months later I forced myself awake because the melody, lyrics, and chord progression all came to me in my sleep! I mumbled it into my iPhone voice memos at around 3am and thought when I woke up I’d probably think it wasn’t any good. But I played it back the next day and loved it and then played it in person for David and he was like “well, I think we’ve got ourselves a hit!” 

·  How would you describe your music in 3 to 5 words? 

Inspirational, healing, anthemic, pop country

·  What are a few of your favorite venues to play at? 

In Nashville I love playing The Bluebird and The Listening Room. In NYC Rockwood Music Hall feels like my home stomping grounds and I love the Jones Beach Bandshell

·  What is your recording process when creating and making new music? 

It’s different every time depending on the producer. The recording process for “Down To Nothing” and my first single with Reviver “This Town Made Us” was particularly unusual because they were both recorded remotely during 2020 when people couldn’t be in the studio together. It was a challenge but also incredible to see how technology can make it as if we are in the same room together. My producer Dave Pittenger and I had never met until almost a year later! 

·  What is one of your favorite quotes? 

Put on your oxygen mask first

·  Is there anything else you would like to share? 

A lot of new music coming out soon! Follow me on my socials to stay up to date! And for those who like adorable animals, follow me on Instagram and TikTok: my rabbit Sherlock makes a few cameos 🙂

Brooke Moriber~ Artist Spotlight!!!

Credit~ Shervin Lainez

Brooke Moriber is known for her “clarion voice,” according to (Associated Press). Moriber’s powerful vocals and passionate songwriting have joined with audiences from New York to Nashville- the two places she calls home. 

Growing up in Greenwich Village, Moriber grew up on the sounds of guitar picking and voices playing through her bedroom window from Washington Square Park and the nightclubs below. She was drawn to music at a young age and at 8 years old booked her first audition., landing the role of Young Cosette in Les Miserables on Broadway. That was the first big triumph on stage and screen for her. 

Moriber first turned to songwriting when she got a uncommon eye disease as a teen and to cope with the exhausting treatments and loss of sight. Moriber, would “wake up one morning and couldn’t see her face in the mirror.” To the miracle of her doctors, the disease with into remission 4 years later and Moriber was determined to share her view of the human spirit through her music. She was soon repeatedly playing to full rooms in those downtown clubs like the ones she would notably try to peak in as a child including The Bitter End, Rockwood Music Hall, and Mercury Lounge. Her hometown star began to grow and she performed to bigger audiences at Jones Beach, opened for the Gin Blossoms at the WellMont Theater, and sang the National Anthem for her hometown New York at Madison Square Center. 

Invited by a west coast (LA-based label) executive in 2018, she joined with a number of pop music’s up-and-coming writers. But it was erased from her anthemic and soulful appearance of faith, flexibility, family and fierce love for her hometown that her heart was in country music. In a great turn of fate, Moriber was asked by a film producer during her last show in LA- brother of famous legendary Nashville record producer Fred Mollin who also happened to produce one of Brooke’s vocal icons, Linda Ronstadt. Just one phone call and a demo later, Moriber was in Nashville meeting with Music Row publishers and getting ready to record her first track in Music City. During her first trip, she would also meet her “Nashville Family,” – co-writers and musicians who quickly became her closet friends and collaborators. 

Her visits to Nashville became many and always longer than planned. She dived into daily writing sessions and writers’ rounds and found herself in a twister of self-discovery, falling head over heels for country music and the Nashville lifestyle that had welcomed and accepted her with open arms.

The first track became a full-length album. “Cry Like A Girl,” was independently released in 2019 with Parade Magazine celebrating Moriber for her “raw emotion, strong vocals,  and spot-on delivery.” She was soon being asked to play in popular venues around Nashville like The Bluebird, the Listening Room and The Local. Many tracks from the album were showcased on Spotify’s popular “New Music Nashville,” playlist and Sirius XM’s Velvet station. Following the achievement of “Cry Like A Girl,” Moriber was signed to Nashville’s Reviver Records.

Influenced by artists like Jennifer Nettles, Ingrid Andress, Brandi Carlile and her idol Linda Ronstadt, Moriber is poised to take her place among the huge voices in country music. She recently got the chance of sharing billing with another idol, Sheryl Crow, also The Gibson Brothers and Livingston Taylor where they played in tribute to Willie Nelson for his work with Equine Advocates. 

Moriber also worked in the studio with Revier and wrote with many of Music Row’s hitmakers. She has made a second home in Nashville, splitting her time between Music City and her hometown New York, and she also put out another single called “This Town Made Us.” Penned alongside Nashville stalwart Bill DiLuigi and New York based singer/songwriter Cassandra Kubinski, “This Town Made Us,” is a song about hometown pride and written in the aftermath of the 2020 tornado  that tore through Nashville as well as the pandemic which deeply affected both Nashville and New York City. This song is also a full-baffle anthem that celebrates the strength and heart of two places that have shaped Moriber as a  woman and an artist. 

In 2022, Moriber’s brand-new single “Down to Nothing,” came out and it is streaming both on Spotify and Apple Music. If you would also find out more about the great and talented Brooke Moriber then please go check out her social media accounts, which are down below. Thanks again Brooke for wanting to be a part of my site and so happy to come across your music. 

Social Media Accounts:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brookemoriber

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookemoriber/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/brookemoriber

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrookeMoriber

Willie Morrison~ Q&A!!!

  1. Hello Willie, can you tell us all about yourself before you became a country singer? I grew up in Washington D.C. I went to Occidental College and The University if Miami. And before my solo career as “Willie Morrison”, I was in a band for ten years with my brother called “The Morrison Brothers Band”. 
  2. What made you want a career in country music? It wasn’t so much country as it was music. I just loved playing and writing songs. But having grown up listening to country, I think my style inevitably lent itself well to the genre, and I couldn’t be happier about being a part of the country music community. I remember being inspired by live music from a young age. Thankfully my parents took me to see a lot of live music growing up, and I always wanted to be a part of what I was so taken by on stage. 
  3. Who are some of your musical icons? Delbert McClinton, Merle Haggard, Zac Brown Band, Citizen Cope, Eva Cassidy, Otis Redding, Shemekia Copeland. 
  4. What is the background behind your brand-new single “Car?” “Car” pays tribute to young love, and the difficulty of moving on when it ends. When you fall in love in high school, one of the places you end up spending most of your time together is in the car. For me, my car served as one of the major settings where my high school girlfriend and I hung out. Whether it was our first kiss, listening to music together, driving to the movies, escaping the “no-closed doors” rule of each of our parents — my car was always along for the ride. So, when things didn’t work out, it was difficult to even ride in the car sometimes without imagining her in the passenger seat. And ultimately, the tough decision must be made about keeping the car or not.
  5. How would you describe your music in 3 to 5 words? Fresh, Friendly and Catchy. 
  6. What are a few of your favorite venues to play at? 9:30 Club in D.C.,  The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA, The Basement East and Analog in Nashville, TN. 
  7. What is your recording process like when making and recording new music? It varies from time to time. Usually it starts with a demo, which is sometimes done in the writing session or shortly after. From there, I look at what I love about the demo or where it goes astray. I then line up a producer and go over the vision for where we see the song going. We then lineup whoever else we need to play on the song and go from there. It’s a long process. Once you are done “recording”, you then have to send to mixing, and then to mastering.  
  8. What is one of your favorite quotes? “You have to fall in love with the process of becoming great”. I heard this said by Blake Griffin lol, but it really applies to what I do. If you are just in it for the stardom you are doomed. It takes too much work and sacrifice for fame to be your motivating factor. For me, it means loving what you do. Even if you still have room to improve, you have to love the work. You have to love writing, and creating, no matter what the outcome is. 
  9. Is there anything else you would like to share? I’m playing a free full band show March 22 at The Analog in Nashville, TN. 

Willie Morrison~ Artist Spotlight!!!

Willie Morrison has always been one to see things, from a different outlook and grasp the opportunities that come his way. This tendency for “coloring outside the lines is clear on his first two solo singles, “One More Time” (2020) and “Heartbreak Girl.”

Morrison grew up in Washington, D.C. with an encouraging family who showed him not only the different aspects of government and politics, but also the value of philanthropy, a well-founded work-ethic, and most important, the love for music. His dad enjoyed all live much- blues, rock, jazz, country—and Morrison jumped at any chance he got to goes with his dad to a  show. The music of Delbert McClinton and Merle Haggard to Eric Clapton and Little Feat influenced him to attend piano and guitar lessons as a child, eventually working on his songwriting skills alongside his high school guitar teacher.

While he played college baseball at Occidental College in Los Angeles for a year, it was The Morrison Brothers Band Morrison started with his brother Truman, that became his main focus. The band would sell tickets on campus for their LA. club shows and they built a following in that location. When Morrison transferred to the University of Miami to study political science, the band worked on their touring route by going up and down the east coast covering Florida, Baltimore, D.C, Philadelphia, and New York City.

A chancing meeting music artist, Maggie Rose (another D.C. local), led to a move to Nashville in 2015. Rose signed on to produce the band’s first EP, and the band was signed to an artist development deal that started to open doors to more opportunities. The Morrison Brothers Band played on the Miss World 2017 show, wrote the theme song for the Washington  Capitals hockey team, and earned a Top 3 video on the CMT 12 Pack Countdown for their single, “Loud Love.” When the band member agreed to go separate ways after 10 years together, it started up the biggest door for Morrison so far in his solo career. 

Morrison shared “he like the freedom and the power to do what he wants 100%. It’s been nice to take it in his own direction. He is excited he can make this exactly how he want it to be.” He is not here to keep everything between the lines, it does not have to be right down the middle. He wants it to be original.” 

Morrison’s creative songwriting skills and utility have also been directed to other artists recording his songs from Ashland Craft, Brothers Osborne, and Clay Walker to 3x Grammy-nominee, Shemekia Copeland, and new country artists Tanner Stephens and Kylie Trout. 

Morrison’s second single, “Heartbreak, Girl,” is an item of those special days of songwriting magic where the fun lyrics, melody and vibe y come together.

Sonically, the start of “Heartbreak Girl,” was different from “One More Time,” because the big chorus needed a bigger production. “While they maintained a funky vibe in the verse, they let the guitars crank in the chorus, and turned up the vocal as loud as they could. They knew people would be singing along so they arranged the production accordingly,” Morrison shared. 

Morrison’s newest single, “Car,” pays gratitude  to young love and showcases a car as the setting for all of the joyful times and hardships of a past love lost. As Morrison looks onwards to bringing his new music to both his longtime fans and new listeners, he seizes this chance to stake his claim in the country music world. 

If you would like to find out more about the great Willie Morrison then please go check out his website at (https://www.williemorrison.com).

Social Media Accounts:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamwilliemorrison/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamwilliemorrison/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WillieMorrison_