R. B. Morris is a poet who writes emotionally intense songs full of ideas and unexpected word-play and sings them in arrangements that emphasize the rhythmic interchange between words and music. There's enough country in these songs to recall literate writers like Kris Kristofferson, but there's enough roots rock and blues in the music to make you think twice before saying singer-songwriter. Morris grew up on rock and roll, but an older brother pointed him to other influences - myth, Southern writers, the novels of Joyce, Arthur Rimbaud, and the music of Dylan. He played his way through the clubs and honky tonks of the mountains, first with bands with old time fiddlers and then later with groups that rocked. Later on the road to the West to San Francisco, the patron city of the Beats, he moved in the circles that surrounded poet Gregory Corso and made friends with Kerouac biographer Gerry Nicosia. Back in Knoxville, Morris focused on writing and performing his poetry. He edited a literary magazine, Hard Knoxville Review, which attracted an avant-garde cult following in this country and in Europe. He also wrote a one-man play, The Man Who Lives Here Is Loony, about the turbulent life of writer James Agee. Morris' songs reflect a range of musical styles: pop, blues, country, gospel and improvisation with spoken word. What gives them their signature is a provocative wit and a sense of melancholy which dance in rhythmic word play that turns these contrary tendencies into the best of friends.

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