Singer-songwriter pens ‘love letter’ to hometown

While she was in Texas recording her latest album, “Maybe Modern,” Wareham-born singer-songwriter Grace Morrison missed the salty air of her hometown.

“I don't want to insult anyone from Texas,” she said, “but it was driving through [there] when I realized how much I love Massachusetts.”

“Wasted,” the lead single from “Maybe Modern,” was released on all streaming platforms on Friday, Feb. 24.

The full album will be released on April 14.

One of the album’s songs, “Broken Things,” is about the former home of Morrison’s great-grandparents, located on Main Street.

The song was inspired by the time that Morrison felt beckoned by the abandoned house, and went inside to explore it. 

“Somebody had broken in and the door was just open,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘That was for me.’ I just needed to go explore.”

Inside, Morrison found a “time capsule.”

Looking at her grandparents’ Christmas ornaments and her great-grandmother’s piano, she was amazed that everything was still standing. 

Morrison compared the strength of the objects to the strength of her ancestors, who struggled with mental illness.

In their day, she said, “people were expected to be sturdy, too, and not admit when they were broken, when in reality, that just made them more broken.”

In 2021, when she was a finalist in the Songwriter Serenade competition in Schulenberg, Texas, Morrison met singer-songwriter Walt Wilkins.

After hearing her music, Wilkins offered to be Morrison’s producer, and invited her to Austin to record two songs.

Two songs quickly became four, and eventually grew to the nine songs on “Maybe Modern.”

“When we were in the studio, it just was going so well,” she said, “and we had a little extra time.”

Morrison describes her music as “saltwater country,” a nod to Wareham’s coastal air and the title of a future album.

Morrison has already reached her $10,000 Kickstarter goal to support the production and promotion of “Maybe Modern,” and has raised $11,000 of the $15,000 she needs for “Saltwater Country.” 

“‘Saltwater Country’ is kind of an homage to Wareham,” she said, “but also the whole concept of people going to the water to be reborn.”

To donate to Morrison’s work, visit kickstarter.com/projects/gracemorrison/grace-morrison-is-making-a-new-album.