Concrete and Mud [Golden Highway Colored Vinyl], Sam Morrow, Vinyl

Five albums into an acclaimed career, Sam Morrow has carved out a sound that exists somewhereoutside of genre and geography. It's his own version of modern-day American roots music: a mix ofroadhouse rock & roll, bluesy R&B, and country-fried funky-tonk, driven forward by groove, grease,and guitars.It's also a sound that owes as much to the road - where Morrow spent most of the past decade ontour, supporting albums like Concrete & Mud and Gettin' By On Gettin' Down - as the variousplaces he's called home. This is music for the fast lane. Music for empty highways. Music for peoplewho, like Morrow, always seem to find themselves in transit."I feel like I'm searching for something," he says. "I've been on some kind of journey. Maybe I don'tknow what I'm looking for, exactly, but I'm keeping my eyes open."On The Ride Here marks the latest leg of that journey. Morrow takes us along for the ride, singing ina laidback Texas drawl about highway haunts ("Thunderbird Motel"), peyote trips in the MojaveDesert ("Searching For Paradise"), and the glamor and grind of the open road ("Hired Gun"). On TheRide Here offers more than roadside ephemera and travelogue tales, though. Morrow isn't justfocused on the drive these days; he's interested in the destination, too, and a number of these songsdeal with the hard lessons and new perspectives that come with rest, reflection, and time spent athome.