{"id":337200,"date":"2015-09-03T11:44:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T15:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/frederickplaylist.com\/?p=337200"},"modified":"2015-09-03T11:44:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T15:44:12","slug":"josh-morningstar-songs-for-fools-with-broken-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/2015\/09\/03\/josh-morningstar-songs-for-fools-with-broken-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Morningstar: ‘Songs For Fools With Broken Hearts’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JM\"<\/a>If other local newspapers are to be believed, Josh Morningstar has already lived one hell of a life. Long before he even sniffed the age of 30 \u2014 or, for that matter, a guitar \u2014 the Funkstown native struggled with heroin addiction, eventually facing a life-or-death crossroads that changed the trajectory of not only his existence, but his career. Clean for a handful of years now, he\u2019s managed to release a few records, sign to the Kansas City label Little Class Records, and land a job as a songwriter for a Nashville publishing house.<\/span><\/p>\n

His hard luck is plastered all over \u201cSongs For Fools With Broken Hearts,\u201d his latest 10 song set that only occasionally stings as much as you might think it would. Armed with his acoustic guitar and a Hank Williams influence, Morningstar pulls no punches while talking about the absence of a love lost, be it through anger or sadness or reflection or fantasy. At a crisp 31 minutes, the collection amounts to the epitome of how valuable it is to make your point, do it quick, and move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs Long As You Ain\u2019t Coming Back,\u201d the album\u2019s best track, recalls \u201cgetting in a fight last night at White Castle,\u201d which is far more clever than one might initially assume. Trotting along at a 6\/8 time signature \u2014 and a lazy-waltz pace \u2014 the song is vulgar in all the right places, including a payoff line toward the end that isn\u2019t allowed to be reprinted in a newspaper. If nothing else, it allows the singer to shine as a cutting humorist, too honest to be nice and too blunt to be forgiven.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s refreshing, considering how broken the guy seems elsewhere. \u201cCrying Eyes Of Blue\u201d is delicate and recalls his idol with a sparse electric guitar that pulls from the best of Nashville\u2019s Music Row. Adding levity is how apprehensive Morningstar sounds with each verse, his voice cracking with hurt, almost too scared to wonder if he\u2019s even allowed to ask his romantic counterpart not to leave. The inflections are subtle, but tastefully placed and darn-it if they aren\u2019t affecting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll Never Get Over You\u201d kicks up the tempo and paired with a pop chorus, it feels more early-day Jason Mraz than it does present-day Brantley Gilbert. The move works, though, that hook sticking around for days due to the singer\u2019s play on the phrases \u201cgetting over me\u201d and \u201cgetting over you.\u201d And if you need a marquee line to focus on, you probably won\u2019t find a better one throughout the entire record than \u201cI\u2019ll wipe the tears away as you say you\u2019re not in love with me anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Morningstar is at his most interesting, however, when he wants to have fun. Much like \u201cAs Long As You Ain\u2019t Coming Back,\u201d \u201cHank Williams Woman\u201d walks the better side of the line separating cheeky and corny. Comparing the subject of his own heartbreak with whomever it was Williams wrote about when he was at his best, the Hagerstonian paints pictures just well enough to prove his point. Buying a cassette tape at a truck stop might be a time-honored tradition in some songwriting circles, but here, it proves that this guy\u2019s in on his own joke, making him that much more endearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of endearing, \u201cLet\u2019s All Help The Cowboy Sing The Blues\u201d caps the record with a certain amount of humility that\u2019s both necessary and welcome. Self-aware and diffident, it\u2019s almost impossible to not root for this guy to find a healthy life and everlasting love. Because if you can\u2019t get on board with, \u201cHe does a little Shakespeare and he sings\/Plays the mandolin and other things\/He looks for love, beauty and IQ\/And that\u2019s what makes the cowboy sing the blues\u201d \u2026 well, then that\u2019s on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only slip-ups come when he insists on being a one-man band. Word has it, he performs by playing kick and snare drums with his feet, and that leads to just a couple low-rent moments that he should have known better than to put on an album. \u201cShe\u2019s Gone, Gone, Gone\u201d is pretty good, but because that makeshift drum beat feels just a tad off-tempo, the tune appears more generic than it should. Plus, all things considered, \u201cI\u2019ll Never Get Over You\u201d doesn\u2019t even really need percussion to live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, those choices are tiny missteps when you consider how poignant he can be with songs like \u201cI Went Crazy For Awhile\u201d and \u201cMotel Madness.\u201d The former is everything you want it to be, some lone-star guitar noodling piercing through with the warmth of a butter knife. The latter, aided by a sweetheart piano, is tired and personal, the two things that make Josh Morningstar such an interesting and listenable singer\/songwriter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which, of course, are also the two things that make \u201cSongs For Fools With Broken Hearts\u201d worth your time. The sound of a hard-lived soul trying desperately to outrun his past, Morningstar should rest easy knowing the worst is most likely behind him. Because with the maturity and wit displayed here, it\u2019s clear that he doesn\u2019t necessarily need all that pain in order to churn out quality material. Yet even if he does, something about this set promises that he still has more to say about the good, the bad, and the real bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when he says it, we better listen.<\/span><\/p>\n

*** 3 STARS OUT OF 4 ***<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If other local newspapers are to be believed, Josh Morningstar has already lived one hell of a life. Long before he even sniffed the age of 30 \u2014 or, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnpsites.net\/playlist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}