Saltwater Country: A love letter from Wareham native Grace Morrison

Grace Morrison’s upcoming album, Saltwater Country, is part love letter to her hometown, part portrait of a woman who has grown into herself and her music, and part affirmation that her songwriting deserves to be heard and celebrated.

“The eternal question is: ‘You’re a songwriter, what kind of music do you do?’” explained Morrison, 38, a Wareham native now living in Rochester. “I would say country, or I would say folk, or Americana, like these catch-all terms. But I never really felt like I was truly describing what I did.”

She remembered once arriving at a gig and displayed on the billboard was, “Grace Morrison, folk, jazz, blues, pop, country. It had every genre,” she recalled. “I said, ‘This will not do.’”

Coupled with the fact that Massachusetts isn’t exactly known for churning out country stars (although we see you, Lori McKenna!), this was a challenge Morrison has worked through in the two-plus decades since she belted out her first song on stage at the former HardWare Cafe in Marion. 

“There’s a lot of ownership of the concept of ‘country,’” said Morrison, who picked up a guitar at age 12, when her brother, Steve, gave her her first six-string purchased from the now shuttered Radio Shack in East Wareham. “To say that I was ‘country’ and to be from here, I was getting a little pushback.”

It took some time for Morrison to figure out how she – and her music – fit in. Attending songwriter festivals, which pair aspiring songwriters with seasoned professionals (like Morrison’s now friend, Susan Gibson, writer of The [Dixie] Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces”) she thought: “What I’m doing doesn’t really sound like any of these other people.”

For a period, she attempted to change her sound to better fit into the confines of the country genre. But her mentors stopped her, saying: “What you’re doing is different. Grow that,” she recalled. 

So she did exactly that. The result is a 15-track album that Morrison calls Saltwater Country, inspired by this area, her experiences and musical journey, and the people she knows and loves. 

“In attempting to write this thing about my hometown, I feel like I was really writing about myself at the same time,” she explained. “It’s a funny thing because when you tie your sense of self and self-worth with your art, you can’t break them apart. That’s a lot of what this album is about, is learning to say, ‘I love me.’”

A style that is all her own, Saltwater Country will be released next summer, as long as Morrison can raise the remaining $15,000 needed to bring the album, her fifth as a solo artist, to fruition. An album launch celebration is scheduled on October 5 at 7 p.m. at Stone Path Malt, 11 Kendrick Road, Wareham. Tickets, which cost $20, are still available for purchase online. She is also launching a Kickstarter fund-raising campaign. Click here for more information.

Wareham Week caught up with Morrison to talk about the evolution of her career as a singer-songwriter ahead of the Saltwater Country launch. 

Saltwater Country, the album

Saltwater Country features delightful earworms about life among heavy topics (alcoholism, domestic violence), all of which Morrison navigates with a measure of poise and relatability that resonates throughout the album.

The title track, “Saltwater Country,” is an anthem to this region, wrapped up in a bow. “We are the salt of the earth. We are as real as the smile on your face,” Morrison sings over a classic country guitar riff, “when you finally give up on the traffic to the bridge to the Cape.”

“On My Way to MA” was written while Morrison was road-tripping through the Permian Basin in Texas between musical engagements. She recalled “truly just smelling the oil that permeated everything and thinking, ‘I love home so much.’”

She wanted to capture the feeling of living in a popular tourism area, “where you get all these people who are coming in after Memorial Day and it comes to life. And then Labor Day, it’s a vacuum. I was just really interested in what is left behind. It’s a little bit lonely.”  

“Just a Kid on Parkwood Drive” begins with a 12-year-old Morrison and her guitar at her childhood home in the Parkwood Beach neighborhood of Wareham. She explores feelings of loneliness and inadequacy as she grows up and begins singing in front of crowds, “dreaming of the day I can say, ‘I made it, man.’” 

“Cranberry Blossoms” tells the story of a grandfather working the bogs. Morrison was inspired to write the song while observing her father-in-law, Woody Hartley, with the five-year-old son she shares with her husband, Scott Hartley. (The Hartleys are a family of cranberry growers. Woody previously served on the Rochester Select Board.) 

The song is also an ode to the quiet demeanor of Morrison’s own grandfather, Brayton Newell, who certain generations of local folks will remember from Onset TV and Appliance, which he operated out of his home. “From the first thing in the morning, to the end of the day, never knew what he was thinking,” she sings. “I knew he loved me anyway.” 

“Gloria” is a sea shanty (yes, really!) about the 1985 hurricane of the same name, during which Morrison was born. (Fun fact: Morrison’s mother went into labor at the former Hong Kong Island in Wareham. Her brother Steve, age 23 at the time, had to drive from his Cape Cod home to Wareham during the storm to deliver Morrison’s mother to Tobey Hospital, where she, in turn, delivered Grace.)

Ways to support

1. Support Morrison’s Kickstarter.
2. Hear Morrison live with a full band at Stone Path Malt in Wareham on October 5. Click here to get your tickets before they sell out!
3. Subscribe to Patreon and hear her music before it is released
4. Buy merchandise at store.gracemorrison.com, including Saltwater Country Soap from Wareham-based Pumpkintown Farm

Performances from Marion to Montana and beyond!

A map hangs in Grace Morrison’s living room with pins showing where she and her husband Scott Hartley have traveled together. Most of the pins are in locations Morrison has performed. She jokes: “We only travel for work.” 

But her first live performance was in Marion at the former HardWare Cafe on Spring Street (the site of which is now the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s Marion Science and Field Operations Center). 

“My ability to perform, I really owe to that place, because they just stuck me on the stage as much as I wanted to be on the stage,” said Morrison. She was around 14 years old at the time, singing her own songs as well as covers during the summer before her sophomore year at Wareham High. 

“I think the coolest thing that happened that summer was, James Spader showed up,” the singer-songwriter recalled, still somewhat incredulous: “He’s this famous actor… and he gave me a $20 tip. I still have it.” 

The cash is displayed in an album containing photos from that period of Morrison’s life, including some from Wareham Gatemen baseball games. 

“That same summer, I was singing the National Anthem for the Gatemen, and [Spader] threw out the first pitch” at one of the games, Morrison continued. “He knew who I was already because he had heard me!” 

An early endorsement from James Spader. Not every artist can say that!