Outside the Lines

by Michael BerickWhile Cory Morrow's last outing was a pleasant but not particularly compelling all-covers record (Songs We Wish We'd Written) done with fellow Lone Star troubadour Pat Green, he focuses here on his own tunes and the results are far more impressive. Initially he comes off as a good old boy on the honky tonkin' title track, but Morrow's songwriting reveals some rather emotionally complex lyrics. Tunes like "In Spite of Spite" and "Drinkin' Alone" find him wrestling between the wild life and a more responsible one. He also displays a nice musical range, pulling off muscular country-rockers like "Misty Shade of Blue" as well as quieter, more introspective numbers like "All Over Again." Morrow and his co-producer, Lloyd Maines, enhance the heartfelt love song "Take Me Away" by weaving in a jazzy organ line and some interesting percussion work. Although Morrow comes into his own on this disc, that's not to say that hints of other Texas troubadours don't appear here. The terrific troubled youth tale "Straight to Hell" suggests the story-songs of Robert Earl Keen, a musician who Morrow perhaps most closely recalls. The Tex-Mex-flavored "Dance by the Rio Grande" would easily fit in on a Joe Ely record. You can even hear a little of Australian singer/songwriter Paul Kelly in the Celtic-flavored "More Than Perfect." But the influences never become too distracting. He even takes the overly familiar Grateful Dead tune "Friend of the Devil" and enlivens it with a frisky fiddle and mandolin arrangement. After kicking around the Texas music scene for a while, Morrow proves ready for bigger and better things with Outside the Lines.