Bill Morrissey

Bill Morrissey was a singing and songwriting fixture in New England from the ‘70s until his death in 2011. Born in Hartford in 1951 and a resident of New Hampshire for many years, he began playing guitar at age 13, formed a jug band while in high school and his love of rural blues and country music combined to shape his musical style. One artist who influenced him in particular was bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, whose guitar playing and plantation tales shook Morrissey to the core. He recorded an entire album in tribute to the blues giant in 1999, Songs of Mississippi John Hurt.

Like the legendary Hurt, Morrissey had a knack for simple storytelling and discreet musical delivery, most often using just voice and a guitar. His subjects ranged from New England mill towns and logging camps to local drunks and misfits, and his songs included great detail and ever-present social commentary. After recording his eponymous debut album in 1984 on the Reckless label, Morrissey cut nine more LPs, most of them on the Rounder Records’ Philo sublabel; two were nominated for Grammys and several received four-star reviews from Rolling Stone. “Mr. Morrissey’s songs have the force of poetry…a terseness, precision of detail and tone of laconic understatement that relate his lyrics to the stories of writers like Raymond Carter and Richard Ford,” wrote Stephen Holden in The New York Times in February 1992.

Although he was a firm stalwart of the folk-music camp, Morrissey stepped out of the mold on his 2007 album Come Running, which was produced by Billy Conway of Morphine and featured musical backing from members of that band as well as Dave Alvin of Blasters fame. In addition to his musical ventures, he was the author of two novels – Edson (1996) and Imaginary Runner (2011) – that he painstakingly wrote while never slackening his tour schedule, which was filled with folk-fest and coffeehouse appearances across the US.

Morrissey died of heart disease on July 23, 2011 in Dalton, Georgia, where he was performing as part of a tour. He was 59 years old. “Bill Morrissey may have plied his craft nationally, but he never lost his New England sensibility,” wrote Gil Bliss in an obituary published by Boston.com. “He lived in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts earlier in his life, but the move to New Hampshire provided roots from which sprung a wealth of material. His work reflected the human condition, whether it be life in a crumbling mill town, complex love relationships or a tale that elicited a deep belly laugh.”

(by Carter Alan)

Carter Alan is a former WBCN deejay who’s now heard on WZLX-FM in Boston. He is the author of five books including Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN (University Press of New England, 2013).