Tempting as it may be, don't just judge Gurf Morlix by the company he keeps, even if it does provide a fine starting point: eminent musical artists like Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Warren Zevon, Ian McLagan, Patty Griffin, Robert Earl Keen, Michael Penn, Buddy Miller, Mary Gauthier, Tom Russell, Jim Lauderdale and Slaid Cleaves, to name but a few. Instead, listen to Last Exit to Happyland, his fifth solo album, and understand why his blue-ribbon associations as a producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist have led Morlix to a similar level of excellence as a singer, songwriter and artist in his own right.
Prior to embarking on his own career, Morlix was likely best-known for his 11-year creative partnership with Lucinda Williams as her guitarist, band leader and backing vocalist as well as the producer of two of her classic, critically-acclaimed albums: her 1988 breakthrough Lucinda Williams and 1992's Sweet Old World. His work with Williams led him to produce multiple recordings for Hubbard (four albums), Cleaves (three albums and an EP with a fourth album soon to be released) and two albums each with Keen and Gauthier, as well as discs by Russell, McLagan, Butch Hancock, Hot Club of Cowtown, The Setters (Alejandro Escovedo, Michael Hall and Walter Salas-Humara) and others.
Morlix's varied musical activities include touring with Zevon, Penn and B.W. Stevenson, playing guitar in McLagan's Bump Band, and singing, playing and producing an album with the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, a gospel collaborative of noted Austin talents. Among the many artists he has performed and recorded with are Eliza Gilkyson, Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, Michelle Shocked, Robert Plant, Jimmy La Fave, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Mojo Nixon, Jerry Lee Lewis, Peter Case, Bob Neuwirth, Don Walser, Jon Langford, Steve Earle, Harry Dean Stanton, Syd Straw, Billy Swan, Charlie Sexton, Victoria Williams, James McMurtry, Sonny Landreth, Doyle Bramhall, Flaco Jimenez, Steve Forbert, Bill Kirchen, Lazy Lester, Rosanne Cash, David Byrne, Kevin Welch, C.C. Adcock, John Prine, Dave Alvin, to name some but hardly all.
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