U.A. Morrison finally found his voice. During the 90s, U.A.'s musical career consisted mostly of being a backup guitarist for a number of bands that went nowhere, so he turned to art for an actual living, choosing to play his guitar for friends and family. Later he bought a farm in Brazil and took to raising cattle. Down in Brazil the guitar is practicly worshipped and U.A. would entertain to folks in his small town in the Brazillian mountains with all the American songs he knew and they loved everything from Hank Williams to the Grateful Dead and Led Zepplin (Hock and Hole they call it) It turned out to be a hard way to make a buck and soon he was running low on money. One day during the rainy season he looked up and saw his roof was leaking in a dozen places. His wife turned to him and said "Well U.A., the roof needs replacing, the fields need a tractor, we owe for three new cows. What are you going to do about it?" U.A. kept looking at the water running down to his kitchen and finally said "Think I'll write some new songs" Well he also decided he might as well sing his songs this time. So he wrote a whole bunch of songs, hitch-hiked to Sao Paulo and found a recording studio where he played all the instruments and sang his songs. And here they are.
Well, actually there's more. U.A. dragged his act back to the USA and looked around for some fiddle players to add to the mix. He found Rob Hecht who plays on the actual track of Hillbilly Bootstomp (a.k.a. the Alabama slammer song) and then in turn was found by Crieg Judalman and they collaborated on Hog For Hollywood, recorded in NYC. In the video of Hillbilly, that's Craig, not Rob, playing.
Press
Release: Down Home Picking:
I’m not sure this quite belongs in CD reviews just yet because U.A. doesn’t seem to have a full CD out yet. What he has is three songs that seem demo quality, with videos to match.
I like U.A. Morrison. He plays the kind of music that is near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately I think he needs a supporting cast that is more in line with what he’s all about. U.A.’s persona is kind of like Dwight Yoakam meets Tom Petty. The song writing is good old time rocking hillbilly with a straight forward drive.
The fiddle on Hog For Hollywood, played by Craig Judelman is authentic and true. The music could really be helped by a solid steel player but they can be hard to find.
U.A. says his goal in life is to “get people off their rear ends and jump around and party down and play some of my music and shake off the bad times blues.” I think he will be successful in that with a supporting cast that embodies the hardcore hillbilly in the same way the band’s leader does. I wish him well. Please check out his Myspace page and let me know what you think.
http://studioconcepts.net/?p=166
Description: Welll... you could call it "Hillbilly Hardcore", or "Country rock", or "Beer and Bar-B-Q Boogie". I like to think of it as get off your backside and shake it while your feet is stepping to the beat kind of music.