Maren Morris is a Rare Diamond in the Rough and Tumble World of Country Music
Maren Morris, in her own words, is not a very good famous person. She can be awkward, has an inappropriate sense of humour, loves drinking and most of the time would rather just chill with her dog and fiancé. Yet, here she is taking the country scene by storm.
She’s a rare diamond in the rough and tumble world of country music.
Her debut LP Hero has been a smashing success since its release in June 2016 and it’s catapulted the pint-sized singer to ultra-stardom. She’s won a Grammy, performed a duet with Alicia Keys and recently announced her next endeavor—a North American tour with Niall Horan. And this, ladies and gentlemen, has all happened in the past year.
Morris grew up in Arlington, Texas where she started singing as a young child. As a teen she convinced her parents to let her tour around her home state—to a less than enthusiastically sized crowd. However, the tables have turned.
“There's certainly more of a turnout when I tour through Texas,” she says. “I think Texans have a special pride for their own when one of us starts doing well. It's my home, and it's always going to be my favourite state.”
Her first real venture into the music industry was as a songwriter. She wrote songs for Tim McGraw and Kelly Clarkson—to name a couple massive talents. The song McGraw recorded was one that Morris had co-written with her fiancé, Ryan Hurd.
“He was so complimentary and told the story behind when he first heard it and had to go play it for Faith Hill. It definitely made Ryan and I get wide-eyed and believe we had achieved something great,” she gushes.
Eventually, however, Morris didn’t want to write songs from another person’s point of view. It was time for the show to be all about her. So, she took things into her own statement-ring-clad hands.
“When I wrote My Church, the gauntlet had been thrown,” says Morris. “I was not letting anyone take that song away because my heart had taken hold of it.”
Morris’ neon soul was stamped all over that song and with that, her album started to form. After all, she wasn’t just a writer who enjoyed singing—she was an artist with something to say.
Still a no name in the music biz, Morris decided to upload the few songs she had on Spotify. Within the first two weeks, My Church had gotten over a million plays.
“Spotify is still the Wild West when it comes to music discovery,” she says. “It's so exciting because you can be anybody on there and you just never know how many people will come across your music organically and spread the word.”
Soon, record labels came running.
“That powerful movement gave my music leverage,” she says. With the freedom and curiosity garnered from her online presence, she was able to accelerate her road to success with tracks like Once and I Could Use A Love Song following in a trail of hits.
Her lyrics are full of character and speak to the millennial crowds that are searching for something to relate to. She turns up the attitude on songs like Rich and Drunk Girls Don’t Cry while diving into deeper emotions with the album’s final track, Space. In other words, her songs ooze the confidence we all wish we had more of. However, Morris admits she’s had to put a strong foot forward when branching out on her own.
“As a new artist, you're telling the audience for the first time, ‘This is me, these are my views and this is my compass,’” she explains. “Setting up a platform of honesty and strength from the beginning carries so much weight in this day and age where everyone is so afraid to be subversive or even remotely controversial. I just want to be me—and if I'm not liked by everyone, that's okay. I know that to my true fans and myself, I'm being genuine.”
If you caught her swaggering performance of Rich on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in September, you’ll know that she’s a genuine artist capable of performing more than just traditional country songs with an acoustic guitar. It was a complete step up from anything we’ve seen her do so far—and it was truly captivating.
Not only was that performance a gleaming example of her maturing sound, but a glimpse into her growth in the fashion world, too. It was an elevated approach from her usual on-stage looks of over-the-knee boots, high-waisted shorts and crop tops (“It's fool proof,” she explains) with Morris prowling the stage in a shimmering tube top and silky wide-leg trousers. To pull truth from her catchy tune 80s Mercedes, she’s definitely turning every head and, hell, she ain’t even trying.
There’s no doubt that this nineties baby will continue belting out sass-filled songs for years to come. Morris’ next adventure is to continue touring and finishing up her second album. One thing she hopes to bring to her music next is more depth and vulnerability.
“That's a hard thing for me [to do] being a woman in a man's genre. Showing softness is something I've shied away from because I've had to be strong from my career's get go,” she says. “I think I'm in a place now where I've established my sound and confidence, and I can dig deeper.”
If fame has taught this young starlet anything, it’s that fame itself can be unsustainable. So when she’s not binging episodes of Veep and munching on Oreos with Justin’s peanut butter (“It's so indulgent and completely delicious”) she’s striving to be a better artist, a better writer and an antenna for her fans to be heard.
“I love seeing my music and message reach millions of ears, but I'm not here to be famous or anywhere near it. I'm so moved by my favourite artists and records, and I just hope I can do that for so many others.”
This interview with Maren Morris was written by Melina Morry and appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Chloe Magazine. Read more articles by Melina Morry here.