Sarah Morris: “Here’s To You” (2023) CD Review

Sarah Morris is a singer and songwriter based in Minnesota. In 2018, she was a winner of the Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition, and in 2020 she released an excellent album titled All Mine, featuring original material. She is now following that with Here’s To You, her fifth full-length album, which also contains all original material and features largely the same musicians backing her. In addition to Thomas Nordlund on guitar, Andrew Foreman on bass and Lars-Erik Larson on drums, all of whom played on All Mine, this release features Dave Mehling. Mehling plays piano, organ, pedal steel, accordion, synthesizer, guitar and percussion, and also produced the album. Sarah Morris plays both guitar and piano on this album. This release, like her previous one, demonstrates her tremendous talent for writing meaningful lyrics.

“Everything, everything, everything, everything’s changing,” she sings in the title track, which opens the album. Indeed. I love the way the word “everything” is stressed through repetition. It can be surprising to find that truly everything is in flux, but here it seems a positive thing. Sarah Morris delivers a friendly, sweet, honest and pretty vocal performance. This song has a gentle country vibe. “Let’s mark the passing of time/Please raise your glass against mine/Oh, I’ve had this bottle for who knows how long/Do layers of dust work like rings in trees/Oh, it’s been waiting for years/So we’ll let it breathe.” This is a song that somehow makes us feel good about the passing of time, about where we are. Haven’t we all earned a taste of the good stuff? While “Here’s To You” mentions raising a glass in a toast, the second track, “You Are (Champagne On A Wednesday),” mentions champagne in its first line. This track starts off softly, but soon has a full-band sound with some pop elements. By the way, those opening moments can be a bit unsettling if you’re listening on headphones, as the sounds goes from one ear to the other. Here is a taste of the lyrics: “I’m gonna put on my new dress, impress/All the neighbors, would you do me a favor?/Put on something that makes you feel like dancing/We’ll find ourselves an empty parking lot/Turn up the volume on this old boom box/Collecting dust since we were seventeen.”  Those lines take me back to a specific moment from when I was seventeen, when a girl taught me how to waltz in the parking lot of a Dunkin’ Donuts. So long ago, and yet this song so swiftly carries me there that I know the moment is not truly gone. “I’ve heard the stories you tell yourself/No wonder you’re not sleeping well.”

“Ruthless” begins with a beat. Sarah’s vocals soon come in, having an intimate quality in the delivery. “You should know/When forced to choose between kindness and the truth/I will be/I will be/I will be/Ruthless.” Those are some of my favorite lines on this album. And this is one of my favorite tracks, in large part because of her excellent vocal performance, which is captivating. That’s followed by “Staggering,” a beautiful song, Sarah Morris’ vocals at the fore. She delivers a heartfelt and moving performance, the guitar gently supporting her, along with some soft touches on piano. There is a vulnerable quality as she sings, “It’s staggering, isn’t it/All the ways we can fall apart/It’s staggering, isn’t it/How much we expect of the human heart.” This is another of the album’s highlights.

“You + I” has an intriguing opening, a humming that sounds spiritual in nature, that has that sort of beauty and strength. And then as the song gets going, it features another intimate vocal performance. There is something so appealing about these lines: “Some sunny summer morning/We pack the car/With lunch and a paper map/We laugh and we laugh and we laugh/And it feels like running away/Even just for the day, I would take that.” Also, these days I find striking any lines that mention the brevity of time, as Sarah Morris sings here, “We always have/So much to say/And so little time/You and I/You and I/You and I.” This track also features a pretty section that feels like it crosses boundaries between what is expected and what is possible, between the earth and the sky, between what is known and what is hoped for. Then “Something That Holds” also transports me in some way. There is a gentle aspect to its rhythm, in addition to the vocal delivery, that invites a sort of drifting away. There is a sweet sound. Some of the music at times reminds me a bit of the work of Jon Brion. This is another of my personal favorites. “I’ve known love to fire up, to flame out/Someone pulled the drain out/There it goes/Slow/But I’m with you/And you’re with me/And somewhere in the in-between/All the proof I’d ever need/That we have/Something that holds.”

There is something catchy in the vocal line of “The Longest Night.” And I love these lines: “We asked some brilliant questions/Wrote down our best intentions/We didn’t need to speak the words to make them true/Take me back to the moment/Where I didn’t know/What I didn’t know/Take me back to the moment/The one right before the one/Where you had to go.” Simple, yet so effective. And beautiful in its sadness, in its honesty. “The Longest Night” is followed by “Come Back,” yet another of the disc’s highlights. It builds in emotional power, and features some gorgeous vocal work. “Come back/If you’d like, I could hold you/Come back/My arms soft, as they are strong/Come back/I have prepared my shoulder/Come back/For the weight of you to press in and then pass over.” There is an ethereal quality to her delivery and to the music. The album concludes with “Hello, My Name Is,” a song that starts with one of those name tags you get at conventions, reunions and occasionally at work, and then from there begins to contemplate all that is related to that ordinary item, and to our names, and thus our identities and, perhaps especially, our histories. How do we start again after a particularly trying time? How do we go back into the world? And when we introduce ourselves, what does that really mean at that point? Who is it we are introducing? And is a name ultimately just “a handful of letters,” carrying no more weight, no more meaning than that? I love the way this song progresses and builds.

CD Track List

1. Here’s To You
2. You Are (Champagne On A Wednesday)
3. Ruthless
4. Staggering
5. You + I
6. Something That Holds
7. The Longest Night
8. Come Back
9. Hello, My Name Is

Here’s To You was released on May 5, 2023.