Direct from Austin

Teddy Morgan sings his own Lone Star blues

by Mark Edmonds

Since the late '70s, Austin, Texas has been a birthing ground for the careers of some of the finest roots musicians. Transplanted to the city by, in many cases, happenstance, veterans such as Marcia Ball, Asleep at the Wheel, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Sue Foley, Doyle Bramhall have gone on to become national favorites after brief tenures in the Texas capital city.

This led one friend of mine to quip that Austin turns out musicians like General Motors turns out cars. Well, maybe there's some truth to that. Over the last several years, roots rock and blues fans have been talking quietly about the development of yet another Austin newcomer named Teddy Morgan, who comes to Gilreins on May 24. Now 25, Morgan and his guitar first arrived in town three years ago from Milwaukee, after an invite to play Antone's came his way from T-Birds leader Kim Wilson. The rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks to an inventive style that allows him to deliver everything from edgy, melodic, roots rock to some of the most sinister, low-down blues to burn on a bandstand, he's been accepted by everyone in Austin from the city's cadre of veterans to the hardest of its hardcore blues fans.

It's easy to see why. On-stage at Antone's, where I saw him two years ago, Morgan blew through style and genre lines like they're nonexistent with his two-piece, the Sevilles, bringing up the rear. His first outing, Ridin' In Style (Antone's), sported elements of Texas and Chicago blues, touches of Memphis-style rock, and even a few Cajun stomps. A similar mix appears on Louisiana Rain (Antone's/Discovery), wherein the baby-faced phenom offers up several helpings of succulent guitar-powered roots rock, some funky R&B, and a dose of some of the headiest, ass-kickin' blues this side of an old T-Birds album.

Morgan sets the tone for Rain's ride through roots musicland with lightning-bolt guitar lines on a cover of Don Covay's "Take This Hurt Off Me" that stab at the song's upbeat melody line, while an alternating cast of Austin backup players -- many of them Antone's regulars, including Wilson on harmonica, guitarist Derek O'Brien, pianist Gene Taylor (formerly of the Blasters), and keyboard wiz Riley Osborne -- build melody lines reminiscent of early Stones tunes. Twin guitars strum and pianos tinkle, making the song every bit as infectious as Covay's sweat-soaked original.

Combined with other covers that Rain offers, such as the radio-friendly re-do of the Lonesome Strangers' "Fine Way to Treat Me," and Geno Delafose's two-stepping "Baby Don't Leave Me" -- as well as originals Morgan wrote for the disc such as his swamp-toned anthem, "Full Grown Man," and "Big Town Women" with its modified bossa nova beat -- the disc is one of the year's better offerings in terms of variety. But where he really shines is on the disc's bluesier material.

He leans hard into the lead of the dusty, Lone Star 12-bar shuffle that powers his own "You Wouldn't Change" and vamps along to the bouncy, Charlie Christian-styled instrumental "Inside Out," which he wrote for the disc, proving he's got the makings of a future legend as a blues player. Morgan picks, flutters, and bends notes just long enough to wring as much out of them as possible in the same way Jimmy Vaughan did a decade and a half ago on early T-Birds records.

Even though the Vaughan comparison has come up before, Morgan explains their similarity in style is coincidental. "I'm not sitting here thinking, I'm gonna try to play like Jimmy," he says during a tour break. "I do love his playing, but I've never been one to dig too much flash -- except for Charlie Christian kind of flash. I dig that shit. But as far as Jimmy and I go, we just seem to have similar styles."

Morgan discovered the blues through his parents' record collection. By age 13, he'd decided to become a musician. "I wanted to be Bob Dylan, but then I found this Lightnin' Hopkins record. I flipped for that sound. And then I got real deep into it, you know? Muddy, Robert Lockwood, all sorts of swing, and almost any kind of cool, old, funky blues from the '50s. I was listening and loving it."

Morgan arrived in Austin a blues zealot. But in recent years, he's expanded into R&B, soul, and other complementary forms. "When I was younger, I didn't want to hear anything else other than the blues. But in the last few years, I've gotten into all these other things. That's where this disc comes from, I guess. It's all of these influences coming in with the blues, with the end result being something coming out that sounds fresh and new. That's what I want to hear when I listen to music. I don't want to just hear some retro thing."

Teddy Morgan and the Sevilles play Gilreins at 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 24. Evening Sun open. Tickets are $6. Call 791-2583.