New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Rob Morsberger Official Website) Faced With Shocking Diagnosis of Terminal Brain Tumor, Acclaimed Singer Rob Morsberger Readies New CD That Eerily Foreshadows His Illness
Esoteric Rocker is Undeterred in the Face of Devastating News, Vows to Make as Much
Music as Time Allows
As acclaimed esoteric rocker Rob Morsberger recently wrapped up work on his brilliant new CD, 'Ghosts Before Breakfast', headaches and dizziness prompted him to see his doctors. The news was devastating:
"As I was finishing off the record I unexpectedly received a diagnosis of grade 4 Glioblastoma…the worst manifestation of the most malignant kind of brain cancer. This is not a survivable illness. When I was in hospital having surgery in late September, it really hit me how much of this record clearly anticipated my illness…particularly the song 'Feather in a Stream'. I realized that, deep down, I saw this coming and it came out in my writing. And, surrounded by other suffering people, of course I thought of the song 'The Great Whatever' - particularly as I felt so close, at all times, to a god I can't and don't wish to comprehend. But clearly, this is god's path for me now. I'm ready for wherever it leads me, and I know I, and my family, will be OK."
Morsberger's new album, set for digital release on November 22nd and physical release in February 2012, eerily foreshadows his illness, with multiple songs (written before his diagnosis) focusing on death and mortality. Audio samples, 'Ghosts' video and behind-the-scenes interview, here: https://www.robmorsberger.com/Ghosts.html
Long known as a literate songwriter with a taste for eclectic source material, Morsberger stretched even his own boundaries on 'Ghosts' - he comments: "Themes are…gender, expatriation, art, and especially, again and again, mortality. There are several historical narratives also…This is probably the most eccentric and ambitious record I've made. It has several long form pieces that move in and out of contrasting styles, and features quite a bit of orchestration.
Morsberger's long-time band joins him on
'Ghosts Before Breakfast':
Robin Gould on drums, Jon Herington on guitar, with Zev Katz and Paul Socolow sharing the bass chair.
A planned Fall tour has been postponed at the recommendation of Morsberger's doctors.
Morsberger remains undeterred in the face of the news - his focus is now on his family, his health and his art. His goal is to create and release as much new music as time allows, and his hope is for as many people as possible to become familiar with his work.
His last CD, the extraordinary 'Chronicle of a Literal Man', was featured in USA TODAY, via PRI/NPR, M
Music & Musicians Magazine, and in numerous other outlets. Read some of the reviews, here: https://www.robmorsberger.com/press.html
The NY Times profiled Morsberger in 2006:
https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07EFD71530F931A35757C0A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=%20%201%20%25A0
Watch videos of Morsberger performing, here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/robmorsberger
Rob Morsberger is known for his wonderfully twisted perspective, lyrics that are never dumbed down for the listener, and an ear for complex melody. His songs are characterized by their esoteric surprises and their unwavering intelligence. Though Morsberger has rightfully drawn comparisons to Tom Waits,
Rufus Wainwright, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty,
Robbie Robertson and
Warren Zevon (mixed with a touch of Randy Newman's absurdist wit,) he came into his own on 'Chronicle' and extends the feat on the upcoming 'Ghosts Before Breakfast'.
Song Notes, by Rob Morsberger:
Ghosts Before Breakfast
This song was written to underscore a brilliant 1927 silent film by founding Dada artist and pioneering abstract filmmaker Hans Richter. It was originally scored by Paul Hindemith, whose score is lost. I loved getting inside Richter's head through his writings, many of which found their way into the lyrics. The chorus is a montage of Richter film titles. I used a similar process on the Dalton Trumbo song, as well as others. But the song is really about making art, and being an artist. I hope the music helps make clear the timelessness of the film…it seems so modern and undated. The film will be included on the CD. There is a short doc about this song here: https://www.robmorsberger.com/Ghosts.html
. This song is part of a larger project directed by filmmaker Dave Davidson-who made the Od Jolly Farm film and whose current work includes co-producing the Feinstein series on PBS. Dave is finishing a full length documentary about Hans Richter, entitled 'Everything Turns', and has commissioned new scores to Hans Richter shorts from a number of composers as a corollary project. These will eventually be included as part of the DVD release of the film, and also utilized for master classes at City College this spring, in which I will participate.
The Great Whatever
This song describes a longing for spiritual relationship in a world of suffering where belief in a caring God seems absurdly self-serving. And yet…we still long for connection. This is a very personal song. It suggests a spiritual practice based on not knowing and not understanding.
The Distinguished Thing
A scene from the deathbed of Henry James- but somehow a joyful celebration. The lyrics are factual depictions of his final reveries. My favorite lines: 'with so many stories left to tell/ and so much that remains undone/a family is a county/but it's a long way from Syracuse to London." Another song with a gender subtext but also about story telling, family and expatriation, part of my own personal narrative.
Cobblestones
A rare autobiographical love song from my years in Scotland. Expatriaton, again. This song captures well a time of great sadness in my life.
The Wild Wind
is a history, in six minutes, of my home town, Croton on Hudson. 'Croton' is derived from the name of a Kitchiwank chieftain whose name means 'Wild Wind'…which the song uses as a metaphor for constant change sweeping through a sequence of historical vignettes: from the Kitchiwank who first lived here, to the Dutch settlers, the Revolutionary War, intense labor battles surrounding the building of the Croton Dam, to John Reed, the communists up on Red Hill, the movie stars and artists who came here in the 20s…to the advent of the diesel engine and the four lane highway. Musically this song jumps from Crazy Horse-inspired rock and roll to lush orchestration, with a ragtime sequence for the 1920's narrative. The wind blows up the Hudson along the shoreline, and it really is wild.
A Man Of Much Merit
The only casualty on the Lewis and Clark Expedition was Charles Floyd, a young man who died early on of natural causes. As he was dying, he dictated a letter to his father, which has never been found. This song purports to be that letter. When Floyd died, Lewis described him as 'a man of much merit'. The expedition felt like they were in paradise as they made their way up the Missouri; this song tries to honor that sentiment and utilizes some language from the diaries they kept.
Celebrity Artist
is a satire of the NYC downtown art scene, where outrageous-even monstrous- behaviour is a calculated PR strategy embraced by the media and art business; but buried in the middle is a requiem for Dash Snow, who died of a heroin overdose a few years ago.
For Heaven's Sake
The end of a relationship; I have long wanted to write a song with this sort of 50's rock and roll ballad feel…stripped down like
John Lennon might have done it.
Rocket Science
This is a rocket song and therefore of course an homage to two magnificent records…Space Oddity and Rocket Man…it also carries forward the thread of science narratives that runs through all my records. Really a valentine to music I love, with nods to the
Beatles and
Beach Boys as well….a multi-section, playful extravaganza! I miss a sense of humor in so much modern music…something I always valued about the
Beatles in particular.
Feather in A Stream
This image expresses the way we get swept up by our life story and borne along in its
currents, sometimes without much control. But it also became, unexpectedly, a song about mortality. 'My soul is light/the river flows/it moves along/taking me/on and on/and on it goes/into the wide open sea.'. There follows a furious, thrashing guitar solo, ending with a two minute orchestral epilogue.
Christina In Your Salon
A song about a woman ahead of her time, possibly a lesbian or even an hermaphrodite;
a cross-dresser, a woman of power, an intellectual who studied with Descartes (and was indirectly responsible for his death) and was intimate with popes and cardinals…Christina Alexandra,
Queen Of Sweden. Before she abdicated and wandered through corridors of power across Europe…in the Seventeenth Century.
Bio:
Rob Morsberger is a singer-songwriter and classically-trained composer.
His last album, 'The Chronicle of A Literal Man', was featured
on PRI/NPR and received raves in USA Today, The
Boston Globe and Herald, and more. Writing in the Herald, renowned rock critic
Kevin Convey stated that the "album is the kind of hyperliterate, pop-inflected singersongwriter outing that went out of style when
Warren Zevon died.
And…he can write a hook that could make angels weep." As a sideman, he is currently working on the new Patti Smith album; other credits include My Morning Jacket,
Crash Test Dummies, Marshall Crenshaw, Jules Shear, Loudon Wainwright III, Dan Zanes, and The Roches. Scoring/arranging credits include Boardwalk Empire, Masterpiece Theater, NOVA and Frontline. He was composer for the award-winning PBS series NOVAscienceNOW for its first five seasons.
Born in Ohio, Rob grew up in Oxford, England and studied composition at the University of Edinburgh. He lives with his family in the Hudson Valley just north of New York City.
Visit https://www.robmorsberger.com/Ghosts.html
