The Guest List | Kevin Morby
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The Guest List is a regular book column that surveys the reading habits of some of our favorite musicians. For this edition, we spoke with singer-songwriter Kevin Morby, who released his deeply introspective and lushly produced new album, This Is a Photograph, in May. Kevin was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about what he’s been reading lately.
SwR: Before we talk about your new record, on City Music there’s a spoken-word track of a passage from The Violent Bear It Away. Can you talk about the decision to include the track and what it is about Flannery O’Connor’s work that appeals to you?
KM: I just happened to be reading that book at the time and was really moved by a certain scene in which the main character sees the skyline of a city for the first time and thinks that something on the horizon is on fire. I love this imagery so much—of a city being mistaken for one giant fire—because, in its own ways, a city is very much like a big chaotic fire. It’s such a perfect metaphor. Flannery O’Connor, she’s got a way with words! City Music was an album that aimed to get at the complex beauty of all cities, and Flannery O’Connor does just that just in those few lines, so I thought it would be great to include it.
SwR: What are your favorite books about music?
KM: Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil is one of my favorite books of all time. I can’t believe it exists. It’s so good. I also love Sick Bag Song by Nick Cave. It’s become sort of my tour bible. It really gets at both the fantasy and monotony of tour in a beautiful and very fun way. I also read Warren Ellis’s book Nina Simone’s Gum recently and loved every second of it. Then there’s Just Kids by Patti Smith which made me cry harder than any book ever has before or since. I was also reading—and really enjoying—Last Train To Memphis while writing my latest record.
SwR: Are there any authors or books that inspired the writing and recording of This Is a Photograph?
KM: I was reading a lot of Rachel Kushner at the time of writing the album. I had just discovered her and was obsessed. Her book of essays, Hard Crowd, and her novel, Mars Room, were both big companions while I was writing. There’s a line in her essay “Hard Crowd” where she says, “Sometimes I am boggled by the gallery of souls I’ve known.” This led me to a lyric that appears in my song “It’s Over”: “We used to sing, Cassie, even dream, for the poor souls passing through our gallery.” Thank you, Rachel!
SwR: Many of your records are tied to a particular place: This Is a Photograph (Memphis), Sundowner (Kansas City), Singing Saw (Los Angeles), City Music and Harlem River (NYC). Do you find yourself drawn to writers and/or books with a similarly strong sense of place?
KM: It’s what makes certain authors so memorable a lot of the time. Joan Didion for California. Rachel Kushner for the Bay Area. James Baldwin for New York. Patti Smith for New York. Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor for the South. Larry McMurtry for Texas. John Fante for Los Angeles. Willa Cather for the plains. Charles Willeford for Miami. Murakami for Japan, and so on.
SwR: Any bookstores you’d care to give a shout-out?
KM: My favorite bookstores in America, ones I always make a point of visiting, are probably Dog Eared Books in San Francisco, Last Book Store in LA, Stories in LA, Powell’s Books in Portland, Strand in NYC. In Kansas City, where I live, I love Rainy Day Books. God bless bookstores.
SwR: What’s the last really good book you read?
KM: I just read Widow Basquiat by Jennifer Clement. It blew me away.
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