Cary Morin

Innocent Allies

Self-released

Fingerstyle guitarist and singer-songwriter Cary Morin has long been identified with Colorado but on Innocent Allies, we learn (if not knowing before) that he was born and raised in Billings, Montana by native American father and mother from two different tribes. Although we’ve heard his Native American references on previous releases, none are more direct than this one, inspired by the famous Western painter Charles M. Russell, whose paintings decorated just about everything in sight – Morin’s home, local businesses, relatives’ homes, and even the state capital. Morin mixes his fingerstyle picking with fully developed songs told from his perspective as a Native Crow, interspersed with a couple of standards, the bluegrass “Whiskey Before Breakfast” and songwriter fav, “Killin the Blues.” The album was mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Trina Shoemaker, recorded in Colorado and features nine musicians and singers in the credits including harmonicist Nic Clark, keyboardist Eric Adcock, slide guitarist AJ Fullerton, and Morin’s partner, Celeste Di Iorio, on vocals. Morin plays various guitars both acoustic and electric, pedal steel, and keyboards. Fourteen tracks run well past an hour.

Russell’s work is regarded as crucial in preserving aspects of the lives and civilization of what is now practically mythology for most, except for those close to it like Morin.  Many song titles presumably reflect Russell’s same titles on his paintings. The album begins the with the slow lament, piano rich “Big Sky Sun Goes Down’ while the extended and emotional story song “Waiting and Mad” has Morin’s fingerpicking prominent along with fleshed out accompaniment, imbued by piano, organ, and fiddle. The ballad “Waiting for a Chinook” follows in a similar vein, though enriched by Di Orio’s harmonies.  “Old Timers Poem” is a gently rolling tune accenting Morin’s guitar stylings, mournful fiddle, and more lush vocal harmonies as counterpoint to Morin’s low register tenor as he sings of the original settlers of the West.  Slide guitar introduces the infectious “Good Medicine” while the respectful, tremolo rich take on “Killing the Blues” puts a nice cap on the first half of the album. It’s one of those timeless songs that always delights, no matter the version and this one’s as colorful as any.

The linchpin track that opens the second half is “Indian Hunters Return.” This Russell painting depicts an image of a camp with several teepees and hunters returning from the hunt with food. Among other things, Morin comments that the painting suggests the respect given to an elder tribal member offering the elder the opportunity to eat first before the others. There’s an accompanying video for the song wherein Morin, who co-wrote it with his son, envisions what might have happened to the other characters in the painting.

The strongest exposition of Morin’s fingerstyle expertise is in the typically flat picked bluegrass standard “Whiskey for Breakfast.” (Note how the two covers flank the linchpin track). “Big Nose George’s Outlaw Blues” is a rollicking barrelhouse piano barroom raveup, replete with tasty slide guitar. Certifiable rowdiness abounds and he cleverly follows it with the ambient, haunting “Fire Boat” and sensitively picked, gorgeous “Bullhead Lodge.” “Wally and Keeoma” is another ballad about original settlers of the area, delivered in the similar flowing, gentle as the previous two tracks. “Where the Trails Cross the Big Divide” is aptly rendered with sweeping pedal steel with Morin and his musicians painting their own aural landscape of the environs, effectively carried forward into the twangy celebratory closer “Montana Sky.”

Morin has long cemented his reputation as an astute guitarist, but Innocent Allies clearly represents his crowning achievement as a songwriter. All his inestimable talents are poured into this ambitious project.

• Jim Hynes

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