Multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan, known for her work as part of The Black Twig Pickers, and half of House and Land (with Sarah Louise), cultivates seeds sown by folk music and psychedelia.
Carrying tills the rich soil of Appalachian traditions and her rural North Carolina surroundings into warm, reflective songs about the weight people carry with them, as well as Morgan’s own pregnancy and the birth of her first child.
Bridging the more freeform, expansive leanings of 2021’s Cups and the lucid beauty of her acclaimed 2020 debut Thread, Carrying finds Morgan imbuing her masterfully crafted songs with more subtle and intricate arrangements.
The album’s exploratory nature is anchored by a full band comprised of some of the most thoughtful players in the psychedelic folk and “cosmic country” spheres, including a guest appearance by Ripley Johnson (Rose City Band, Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo), and the foundational rhythm section of fellow The Black Twig Pickers collaborators: drummer Nathan Bowles (Steve Gunn Band, Pelt), guitarist Andrew Zinn, and bassist/engineer Joe Dejarnette.
Morgan finds unity in the burdens and joys, tensions and releases of modern living as a common thread that people bear in their day-to-day lives. “So much of what we accumulate and carry around with us burdens us, but we also can’t or don’t know how to let go,” says Morgan. The profoundness and mundanity of that weight ran parallel for Morgan as she literally carried her child to term: the utter commonality of enduring what billions of parents before her had, and the awesome power of the human body and spirit, the complicated and unpredictable wash of emotions that come with nurturing and nourishing another life.
Morgan’s artistic practices emphasize connections to the natural world and a modern reframing of rural traditions. In her music, her work as a letterpress artist, and on her rural homestead, Morgan implements conventions from bygone eras to craft work that honors and expands on those traditions. Morgan’s myriad of influences and their deep connections stretch from the psychedelic leanings of Trees and the Third Ear Band, to folk singers like Jean Ritchie and Nic Jones, to Kentucky fiddler Clyde Davenport, to Pauline Oliveros and Johanna Brouk, to their roots and circling back again. The process of composing and arranging the songs across Carrying found Morgan exploring the depths of her own experiences, inspired as always by traditional Appalachian music, but free to explore and abandon any false notions of authenticity.