Kevin Morby

About Kevin Morby

Kevin Morby figured out how to be a solo artist the slow way, which turned out to be the right way. He spent his early twenties playing bass in Woods, the Brooklyn psych-folk band that felt like required listening if you owned a flannel and a turntable around 2010. Before that, he was in The Babies with Cassie Ramone from Vivian Girls, making scrappy guitar pop that sounded exactly like New York basements in 2011.

Going solo in 2013 meant stripping things down. His debut, Harlem River, was spare and literary—acoustic guitar, his reedy voice, and observations about Manhattan that felt like worn-out paperbacks. The title track became a kind of mission statement: thoughtful, unhurried, more interested in details than hooks. It didn't sound like much was happening until you realized you'd been listening for twenty minutes without moving.

Still Life, released the next year, found him getting weirder and more confident. The production opened up, letting in drum machines and electric guitar that buzzed instead of chimed. "The World Is Awake" felt like Lou Reed wandering through a thrift store. People started comparing him to Dylan, Leonard Cohen, all the usual suspects for a guy with an acoustic guitar and something to say, but Morby had his own laconic thing going.

Singing Saw in 2016 was where everything clicked. He leaned into his influences without disappearing into them—there's Velvet Underground worship all over "I Have Been to the Mountain," but it sounds like him. "Dorothy" is a talking blues that shouldn't work but does. The album felt lived-in, like he'd finally stopped trying to prove anything.

City Music came next, a love letter to urbanity that paired nicely with Harlem River but showed how much ground he'd covered. Then Oh My God in 2019 got bigger and stranger, building songs like "No Halo" into something approaching anthemic, though still in that deadpan Morby way. He recorded it in Memphis with producer Sam Cohen, and you can hear the room in the recordings—more space, more reverb, more willing to let a moment breathe.

Sundowner in 2020 pulled back again, written in isolation before isolation became mandatory. It's a desert album, recorded in Kansas where he grew up. Hushed and patient, it plays like late-night radio from a highway motel.

These days he splits time between Memphis and Kansas City with Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee. They're that indie rock couple people care about without being annoying about it. His 2024 album, This Is a Photograph, dealt with his father's dementia—heavy subject matter delivered with his usual restraint. He keeps making records that sound like himself, which turns out to be harder than it looks.

Morby shows play quiet and intense. Crowds go still during verses, then come alive on choruses. He's a focused performer who doesn't banter much — the songs do the talking. His band arranges things live with visible precision. You'll see people actually listening rather than checking phones.

Known for Singing Saw, Come to Me Now, This Is How It Happens, Dorothy, Cut Through the Panic

See Kevin Morby Live