The Truth Is Not A Lie With Jarrod Morris

When thinking about Texas country music, and who falls under it's umbrella many different artists come to mind. In today’s Texas country music you experience many different styles such as the traditional honky-tonk sound, the more modern pop-country sound, the 90’s country style, the alternative rock, and the bluegrass sound along with many others. However, there is one sound that comes few and far between and that’s the traditional Western country sound. Though we don’t hear the Western country sound as often as we’d like to, there is an Underdog artist that’s doing it just right, Jarrod Morris.

Jarrod Morris is an up-and-coming Texas country singer-songwriter known for bringing an unique Western country style and it’s time we share this fresh sound to Red Dirt fans. During the day Morris works as a horseshoer but at night he has people dance around in circles to his songs in Honky Tonks. He brings heart melting lyrics to the table that come across as honest and relatable to most while tucking the sound in a Western style instrumentation. His talent is undeniable and his fun outgoing personality is contagious when you’re watching him live. Morris' career has been on the right track for a while now but there is something that made things start moving quickly for him.

Morris’ career took a big leap after he won the Larry Joe Taylor songwriter’s showcase in 2018. This lead to him making his debut into the scene on October 24th, 2018 with his single “Red Bandana” while he worked towards his debut album. “Red Bandana” was produced by Derek Hames at Edgewater Recording Studio and was the first impression of the Western sound you now expect from Morris. In April of 2019 to keep things moving Morris released his 10 song debut album “West of East”. The album was recorded at Melody Mountain Ranch and was produced by Derek Hames along with Grammy award-winning producer and musician Llyod Maines – who’s is the father of the Dixie Chicks and is known for producing some well established artists such as Pat Green, Parker McCollum, and Robert Earl Keen along with others.

This new album opened up more doors for the up-and-coming artist and showcased his Western sound. In September of 2020 he released another single titled “West of East” named after his debut album. Morris went back to Melody Mountain Ranch for this single but this time it was produced by producer, mixing engineer, and musician Josh Serrato who is also known as one of William Clark Green’s guitar players. At Melody Mountain Ranch with help from Josh Serrato this relationship led to other singles like “I Didn’t Think About Rain” in January of 2021, “When You’re Coming Down” in October of 2021, and my personal favorite “Truth Like a Lie” in December of 2021. Starting off 2022, Morris recently put out a new 3 song acoustic EP titled “The Acoustic Covers, pt. 1” that covered well recognized songs like “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World, “Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters/ Dave Grohl, and “Desperado” by Rihanna/Mick Schultz with his Western twist.

His songs like “West to East”, “I Didn’t Even Think About Rain”, “When You’re Coming Down”, “Truth Like a Lie”, “Coyote”, and “Red Bandana” have made quite an impact on his career. Under Texas Music Pickers Spotify charts “West to East” charted at No. 19 as “most stream increase, biggest jumper”. “ I Didn’t Think About Rain” got the same recognition at No. 20. “When You’re Coming Down” also charted at No. 21 as well as “Truth Like a Lie” at No.10. On Spotify alone, his songs like “Coyote” has racked up nearly 3 million streams and “Red Bandana'' racked up just a little over 1 million streams. With these stream numbers that just keep on climbing, Morris is gaining new fans everyday and landing in big venues not only within Texas but across the United States as well with his unique Western sound.

Today, Morris is an independent self-managed artist with the help of his booking & tour manager – also fiddle player – Mike Poole. Although Morris has previously been affiliated with Red 11 Music. His sound is a fresh twist to the Western sound and he’s one of few that are bringing this outlaw Western style back. It will be exciting to see how Morris will reestablish the Western sound within the Texas Country music scene in general. When it comes to Jarrod Morris, “the truth sounds like a lie”, it’s almost too good to be true but there's no denying that he’s doing it just right.