From White to Blue Tour Hits the Road
Morgan James Covers the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and More
By Tori Phelps
The acclaimed Broadway star and recording artist talks icons, auto-tune, and hitting the road for her From White to Blue tour.
Trying to pigeonhole Morgan James is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. Sheās best known for her original songs. Unless sheās best known for her cover albums. Her smooth, sultry voice is absolute perfection on songs by folk icon Joni Mitchell. Unless itās even more flawless on Aretha Franklin songs.
James can do it all, and based on the whirlwind pace at which sheās creating, it appears that she might actually do it allāevery genre, every era, every permutation of a modern recording artist.
If youāre a regular VIE reader, you know that weāre a bit obsessed with the Juilliard-trained songstress. Thereās that voice, the complexity of which never fails to mesmerize and inspire. But her constant stream of projectsāefforts that would be pure madness for anyone but her to attemptāmeans thereās always an interesting new conversation to have. For example, James is currently gearing up for her latest tour, From White to Blue, in which sheāll perform songs from the Beatlesā eponymous hit record, commonly known as The White Album, and Joni Mitchellās Blue album, both of which sheās covered on tribute recordings.
Sheāll do a few dates in February, but the tour officially kicks off March 2 in Destin, Florida, where sheāll perform with Sinfonia Gulf Coast. James is then scheduled to do a show nearly every night in cities from New Orleans to Las Vegas to Dallas. The markets might be big, but the show is very personal. Accompanied by just three musiciansāChelsea Stevens on bass, Doug Wamble (her husband) on guitar, and Damon Grant on percussionāthe stripped-down gigs focus solely on the music. Calling it a āpalate cleanser for fans,ā James promises a fun change of pace. āThis is a little bit less of a bombastic sound and more of an intimate sound.ā
As the tourās name suggests, there will be plenty of material from The White Album. Admitting that she became obsessed with the challenge of covering iconic records, she and Wamble were searching for a new project between studio albums when they learned that the memorable release was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Bingoāproject found. The scale of such a massive album, which includes thirty songs, didnāt faze her as much as the idea of who had sung them the first time. She decided the only way to tackle it was the way she always does: her way.
The āMJ wayā includes one part spectacular voice, one part distinctive vision, and one part condensed time line. She and Wamble, who played every instrument on the album, recorded the full collection and video companion piece within a month. If youāre wondering whether thatās insanely fast, it is. But thatās the way she rolls. Some of her albums, including her homage to John Mayerās Continuum, have been recorded in a single take.
James can accomplish this near-impossible feat because she declines to employ vocal tuning, a technique thatās become standard in the music industry over the last couple of decades. Everything on the radio is tuned, she says, adding thatās itās āunheard ofā not to use auto-tune. But the fact that sheās an independent artistāshe parted ways with Epic Records a couple of years agoāgives her ultimate control over everything she records and releases. āI donāt think people like Adele would choose to be tuned,ā James says wryly, underscoring the fact that labels, rather than artists, usually have final say.
The āMJ wayā includes one part spectacular voice, one part distinctive vision, and one part condensed time line.
She compares auto-tune to Botox: sometimes beneficial in small doses, but unnatural in larger quantities. Urging music lovers to go back and listen to old-school albums by Stevie Wonder or Aretha Franklin, she notes that theyāre not perfect. āAnd theyāre not supposed to be,ā she says.
James refuses to be anything less than absolutely real for her listeners, risk of wonky notes and all. Notoriously humble, she wonāt say what fans and industry insiders know to be true: she doesnāt need tuning. This is the woman who sang in four original companies on Broadway: The Addams Family, Wonderland, Godspell, and Motown: The Musical. Recording an album in one takeāthat doesnāt need auto-tuneāis childās play for someone who sang in hours-long productions eight times a week.
While speed and transparency remain consistent in her recording habits, the content is decidedly unpredictable. Her original songs lean heavily to soul, thanks to the jazz, blues, and soul artists to whom sheās always been drawn, but her covers are another story. In addition to Blue, Continuum, and The White Album, sheās also taken on Black Messiah by DāAngelo, Grace by Jeff Buckley, and many others.
There doesnāt seem to be a rhyme or reason, except that she wants to do them. And thereās certainly no consideration given to whether she should be recording songs from titans like Aretha or Nina Simone. Admitting that sheās not intimidated by covering material from true legends, James chalks it up to the knowledge that she could never be these artists, nor would she ever try. āIām born of this tapestry that they wove before I came along, and Iām just trying to honor what they did,ā she says. āI think paying tribute is a beautiful gift you can give a great song or a great artist.ā
She doesnāt know whether allāor even mostāof the original artists have heard her covers, though Prince did give her his blessing to record āCall My Name,ā a signature song if she has one. It was because he loved it that she was allowed to release the track at all.
This fascinating mash-up of original and cover songs, from nearly every genre imaginable, is what makes both James and her concerts so unique. Her upcoming tour is part of an intentional period of grassroots, on-the-road living. She owes it to her fans, she says, whoāve shown her overwhelming support since her risky decision to become an independent artist. And from a purely practical standpoint, itās also the best way to reach new audiences. Because thereās no record label putting Jamesās face on a billboard or buying ads in a magazine, she has to capture one set of ears at a time. āIād be nothing without people showing up to hear me or putting me on Spotify,ā she says. āIf you donāt go to every single town you can, you canāt ask people to go on a journey with you. Itās about connection.ā
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For more information on Jamesās tour dates, visit MorganJamesOnline.com. For tickets and information about her show in Destin, Florida, on March 2, visit SinfoniaGulfCoast.org.
Tori Phelps has been a writer and editor for nearly twenty years. A publishing industry veteran and longtimeĀ VIE collaborator, Phelps lives with three kids, two cats, and one husband in Charleston, South Carolina.
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