Last Day of the Last Furlough(jmj) by jmjiloveyou

jmjiloveyou - Last Day of the Last Furlough(jmj)

jmjiloveyou

May 15, 2024 12:54pm

Bill Morrissey (November 25, 1951 – July 23, 2011) was a Grammy-nominated American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">folk</a> singer-songwriter based in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New Hampshire</a>.<h2>Early life</h2>Morrissey was born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford,_Connecticut" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hartford, Connecticut</a>. Growing up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he started playing guitar at age 13 and formed a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jug_band" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">jug band</a> in high school.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-ams-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a> He graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acton-Boxborough_Regional_High_School" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Acton-Boxborough Regional High School</a> in 1969<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-Bliss,_Gil-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a> and studied literature for a short time at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_State_University" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plymouth State University</a> before beginning his musical career.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-ams-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a> Morrissey hitch-hiked to Alaska, worked on a fishing boat, then down to California doing odd jobs and trying to get gigs. His travels eventually brought him back to New England, where he found work in a mill in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newmarket,_New_Hampshire" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newmarket, New Hampshire</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-Bliss,_Gil-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a>He was influenced by the American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_blues" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">country blues</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mississippi John Hurt</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_(musician)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert Johnson</a>, the pure country of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Williams" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hank Williams</a>, the Kansas City jazz of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Basie" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Count Basie</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Young" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lester Young</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_folk_music_revival" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">folk revival of the 1960s</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[3]</a> and his own working-class experiences.<h2>Career</h2>His <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eponymous" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">eponymous</a> first album was released in 1984 on the Reckless label, and then re-recorded for the Philo label. It includes the song "Small Town on the River", which, as with much of his work, reflects life in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New England</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_town" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mill towns</a>. In this case, it's a song about a small town in New Hampshire after the mill closes.Over the course of a three-decade career, two of Morrissey's twelve albums received Grammy nominations and several earned 4-star reviews in Rolling Stone.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[4]</a> Stephen Holden, for the New York Times, wrote, "Mr. Morrissey's songs have the force of poetry...a terseness, precision of detail and a tone of laconic understatement that relate his lyrics to the stories of writers like Raymond Carver and Richard Ford."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[5]</a>In addition to his song-writing, Morrissey is also the author of two novels: Edson (1996) and Imaginary Runner (posthumously published in November 2011). He said that his writing was influenced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Carver" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Raymond Carver</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Williams_(writer)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Thomas Williams</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-Enotes-6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[6]</a>Morrissey's last album, Come Running, was co-produced with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Conway_(drummer)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Billy Conway</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine_(band)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Morphine</a>, and released in 2007 on Morrissey's label, Turn and Spin Media. Come Running features guitar work by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Alvin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dave Alvin</a> and the remaining members of Morphine, Billy Conway and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Colley" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dana Colley</a>.While Morrissey was best known for his often dark, literate lyrics, he also occasionally wrote humorous songs, such as "Party at the UN" ("It's such a happy community / Everyone's got diplomatic immunity") and "Grizzly Bear", about a frustrated working-class man dating a wealthy young woman who wants to "dance till we dehydrate," while he just wants to "take her home and dance the grizzly bear."<h2>Personal life</h2>Bill Morrissey was married and divorced twice. His first wife was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lisa_Glines&action=edit&redlink=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lisa Glines</a>. His second wife was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ellen_Karas&action=edit&redlink=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ellen Karas</a>. Morrissey continued to work with Ellen Karas professionally after their divorce.<h2>Death</h2>Morrissey died of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_disease" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">heart disease</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton,_Georgia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dalton, Georgia</a> on July 23, 2011, during a tour of the Southern US.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[7]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[8]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[9]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Morrissey#cite_note-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[10]</a><h2>Discography</h2><ul><li>Bill Morrissey (1984)</li><li>North (1986)</li><li>Standing Eight (1989)</li><li>Bill Morrissey (re-recording of the 1984 album plus three previously unreleased songs) (1991)</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_(Bill_Morrissey_album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Inside</a> (1992)</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_of_Mine_(Greg_Brown_album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Friend of Mine</a> (with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brown_(folk_musician)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greg Brown</a>) (1993)</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Train_(Bill_Morrissey_album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Night Train</a> (1993)</li><li>You'll Never Get to Heaven (1996)</li><li>Songs of Mississippi John Hurt (1999)</li><li>Something I Saw Or Thought I Saw (2001)</li><li>Bill Morrissey: The Essential Collection (2004)</li></ul>