"I used to have a band called Taurus. In 2010 we made a record called “Cannon Falls Forever” in the pre-streaming days of yore. It’s always irked me that the music on this record isn’t there alongside all my other records on “platforms”. Well, thanks to my label GroundUP MUsic you can STREAM AWAY, BABY!

This band and music appeared insanely quickly out of nowhere the way it might in an implausible coming of age movie about a jazz bassist moving to new york, feverishly writing 11 rock songs on a borrowed guitar in a bedbug infested apartment then asking his best friends to learn the songs and fly themselves to Minnesota to record for 12hr/days indefinitely.

Rich Hinman, Mark Stepro, Jake Hanson and I did just that - and I remain very proud of what we made at Brent Sigmeth and Wendy Lewis’s home studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. My current band still plays a few of these songs in our shows, in fact.

In addition to Brent’s incredible recording and mixing (and generosity of time and attention), the record also features appearances (albeit quiet ones) from Wendy on “Getting Younger” and my sister Jess Helle-Morrissey on Born A Lion. Also, it’s how I met (indirectly) Jesske Hume whose husband Nate Wood had been recommended as a mastering engineer to me.

Aaron Lee Tasjan would eventually replace Jake who couldn’t justify flying to New York 4x/month to play Spike Hill and Banjo Jims.

Anyways, if all this is news to you - maybe check it out. If you’re like me, and this triggers wistful and nostalgic memories from Rockwood and Glasslands and Bowery Electric and Sofar Sounds and 7 train sessions and Cameo and the living room and spike hill and cakeshop in the LES and Williamsburg of christmas past, well you might wanna check it out too. See how it holds up after all these years later."

- Chris Morrissey

Chris Morrissey’s “Live In Minnesota” is ten songs recorded at Berlin Music Club in Minneapolis on March 23rd, 2024 at the hometown record release shows for Grey Like The Color. The bands’ live show draws from Morrissey’s six releases across fifteen years - including the first single White Sand from 2018’s Laughing and Laughing and the featured track I Was Here from Cannon Falls Forever (2010). Entering their fourth year as a working band, Marco Bolfelli (guitar), Charlotte Greve (saxophone and voice) and Bill Campbell (drums) are the longest standing unit in Chris’s time as a bandleader, and his only group to tour internationally. Live In Minnesota is an inspired, joyful, rowdy and free set that we are proud to share with you.

"Jeff Taylor of Watchung, New Jersey deserved a song. Originally I wrote it for another band with the idea that he’d write a melody and words and sing on it. That idea fizzled out, so I decided to write the melody myself, every word quite literally about him. We recorded it for my record Grey Like The Color, but it didn’t fit with the other songs. Like Jeff, it’s a world of its own."

Grey Like The Color is the sixth release of bassist, singer and composer Chris Morrissey. Co-produced with John Davis, Grey Like The Color is eight original songs by Morrissey, recorded with his band at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, New York. Bill Campbell plays drums, Marco Bolfelli plays guitar and Charlotte Greve plays alto saxophone and sings. They are joined by special guests Joan Wasser (Joan As Policewoman) and Emma Frank.

The title borrows a phrase from Grey McMurray, who employs it at the fairly frequent mishearing of his name:

“Hello, I’m Grey.”
“Hi Greg”
“Grey, like the color.”