Kevin Morby’s debut solo album, Harlem River, feels like a postcard. It’s an ode to New York City, but also the acknowledgment that he’s moved on from his former home. The title track uses a river metaphor to describe a nomadic and curious traveler on a journey to who knows where.
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About “Harlem River”
One day, Morby walked the length of Manhattan and spotted the Harlem River in New York City. The strait offered much-needed peace as he’d grown tired of living in the city.
Harlem River, talk to me
Tell me what you think about
Harlem River, I’m in love, love, love, love.
Though he’d eventually leave New York City for Los Angeles, the 8-mile river not only rejuvenated the singer, but it also gave him a kind of momentum to move on to somewhere else. He’d previously played in two Brooklyn bands, The Babies and Woods, before turning toward a solo career. It was a risk, but Morby thought everything comes with risk anyway.
In my pearl and my diamond shoes
I climbed a cloud, now I stole the moon
Harlem River, all because of you.
Leaving Los Angeles
Morby’s stay in Los Angeles lasted only a few years before returning close to where he grew up in Overland Park, Kansas. He now lives in the Kansas City suburb with his partner, Katie Crutchfield, the singer better known as Waxahatchee.
For two busy recording and touring musicians, the suburbs offer a retreat and a base. It might be the familiar calm Morby felt from Manhattan’s long river. “Harlem River”, the song, runs for more than nine minutes. It’s a sprawling but relaxed jam where Morby sings in a winding and searching way, not unlike Lou Reed.
The destination in “Harlem River” isn’t clear. Morby reflects on a forgotten past, though he doesn’t linger there—no time for fuzzy memories when you’ve got to keep going.
There’s no hurry in “Harlem River”. He relishes the journey, like the song’s slow chords, and takes in the unknown with whatever discovery awaits him.
This new beginning was goodbye, too. A farewell to New York, and like the river, the end gave way to the next part of the story.
A Health Scare at Home
Since 2013, Morby has released seven solo albums and toured relentlessly. His latest, This Is A Photograph (2022), was inspired by a photograph of his father, near Morby’s age at the time the picture was taken.
He was looking through old photographs with his mother the night his father passed out after accidentally taking double the dosage of his heart medication. Morby’s father recovered, but the health scare inspired him to reckon more deeply with life’s unpredictability and the certainty of death.
Where “Harlem River” documents the voyage, This Is A Photograph, and the still in its title track grapple with the journey’s inescapable end.
However, the anxiety over running out of time pressed Morby, now 37 years old, not to waste it. He’s produced records at a feverish pace since leaving his bands and going it alone. “Harlem River” not only offers clarity and calm, but also advice: You’d better get going.
Photo by Adarsha Benjamin
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