





Ten Tall Tales is here, and it ain't going away. We recorded these ten new original songs in Switzerland in 2008. Come have some!
Bond listened from his Big Leather Couch, and said, "Mr. Morris knows how to pick a guitar and make it sing. There is that down-home blues/rock and roll quality about his songs that makes my feet begin tapping as soon as he hits the first note."
You can order nice clean DRM-free downloads from Amazon, or order the physical CDs directly from us.
All proceeds from this CD will be immediately spent on liquor and pot, providing an immediate stimulus to the economy. It's downright unpatriotic not to buy one! If you need more convincing, come in here to sample some tracks and read all about how we recorded it.
Blind Pig recording artist Damon Fowler was the latest luminary to join us for the Bluescoast Sessions. This is a series of all-star jams that will be released on CD some fine day...real soon, we promise. With Tim Hedding (James Brown, Greg Allman, Delaney and Bonnie) on the B-3 and Tom Bell and Mike Chavers in the engine room, we laid down five (or was it six?) tunes and had a splendid time. Damon's huge talent on guitars both slide and otherwise added some horseradish to Chuck's cocktail sauce (or something like that), and all agreed it was the best Bluescoast Session yet!
The latest Swiss winter tour went great, as always. From the Ten Tall Tales launch party at Dublin's Pub in La Chaux-de-Fonds to the icy wrap party at Charlie's Camel Ranch in Giez, we had great crowds, great fun, and lots of inane humor. The shows were hot (except in Giez, where it was cold) and the camels are still nervous!
Charlie Morris and Gator Bait (Dave Peeples on bass, Martin Hodge on drums) always have a great time at Brackins Blues Bar. This little spot in Maryville is the best Blues club in East Tennessee. Well actually, it's about the only Blues club east of Nashville, but that doesn't make it any less cool! Mark has a great crew here, and we always have a great time swigging PBR with the local Mervillians!
Last summer, Chuck and his boys played four festivals and a couple clubs in Switzerland, including the Fribourg Jazz Parade.
Blues and soul master Darrell Nulisch blew down to Florida for a couple of dates, and your favorite local boy was tapped to back him up and open the show. Darrell lays down some rootsy harp-driven blues and sings his ass off on some great soul ballads. Right up Charlie's alley, and he was tickled pink to be a part of it.
Friday night we did a gig at the Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee, an excellent old-Florida venue where Chuck has played a couple of times before. Saturday it was the Suncoast Blues Society's anniversary bash at good old Skipper's. A fantastic party - kudos aplenty to the SBS - and the best turnout this smoked gator has seen at Skipper's in a long time. Darrell had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the downbeat to the encore.
The Bluescoast Sessions, a series of informal jams with the greatest blues musicians from Florida and beyond, continued in April 2008.
Lucky Peterson is simply one of the greatest bluesmen alive. This man lives and breathes the blues, and it was a great honor to trade licks with him. Lucky stopped in on his way to the Tampa Bay Blues Festival. His set later on at the Ringside was one of the best blues shows I've seen in my life (and I have seen quite a few!), with a nonstop barrage of magical guitar lines holding the audience spellbound.
Bill Wharton, aka the Sauce Boss, is a real Florida bluesman, a mean steel guitar player and a super guy. We had a ball making up a crazy song about Fly Gumbo. This night was exactly what the Bluescoast Sessions was meant to capture.
Some fine day, the pick of the Bluescoast Sessions will be released on a big fat CD.
In July 2007, the Charlie Morris Band had a weeklong stand at the Montreux Jazz Festival. We had an absolute blast! Standing-room-only crowds plied us with champagne and whiskey, and all sorts of great musicians, including Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn, came by and sat in with us.
BAAMO and WMNF released a CD, Power to the People, with 15 songs of protest and political punditry by various artists. One of Charlie's new songs, I Don't Know My Neighbors Anymore, was selected for the disc. It's an acoustic version, recorded during Charlie's appearance on WMNF's Live Music Showcase. Later, Charlie recorded an electric version with the full band, which will be on the next CD (yeah, yeah, one o these days, right?).
Chuck and the band also played at the Power to the People concert at Skipper's Smokehouse, which featured 30 bands! They played Neighbors along with a tune by Iris Dement and one by John Prine.
Charlie's been a big fan and supporter of WMNF for many years, and has appeared live on several different shows, including the Florida Folk Show and the Afternoon Blues Show. It was an honor to be a part of the Power to the People CD and concert!
Hot on the tail of their live CD, Live at the Gator n Chips
, Charlie Morris and band did a 14-date UK and Switzerland tour. Check out the photos!
It was a return to the scene of the crime, as the new live CD was recorded in the UK on the Fall 2005 tour. This time the gator travelled with us in the form of a guitar strap, which was much less dangerous for all concerned (although a couple of people did get bit).
The first leg of the tour was in England, where we played three pubs and a festival. On October 7th, we played to an excellent crowd at the Banbury Festival. The band played a set on the main stage, and Chuck did a solo set on the acoustic stage.
Next we crossed the creek to Switzerland for a return engagement at the Dixie Jazz Club in Sargans, then our first concert in Schaffhausen, at a famous local venue called the Dolder 2.
Here are some pix from the Crescent City Crawl tours (1998-2004). CMB has been going to sip from that simmering saucepan of sin since 1998. Tallahassee, the Panhandle, Mobile, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mississippi...pretty bluesy country, man!
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