Sarah Morris is one of the most approachable, classy and professional musicians I know. An unusual combination to find in one body and her new album, Say Yes, captures that welcoming, grounded feeling in amazing tunes. You can hear the new album at the Dakota on October 10.
It’s been two years since our last 5-question catch-up. You were releasing Here’s to You and now we’re here to talk about Say Yes. Can you catch us up on what’s been happening in the last couple years?
2 years! Wow! Though it helps that I get to see your smiling face out and about in the real world! The last two years personally/musically have been a beautiful blur.
After releasing Here’s To You, I jumped right back into songwriting with the online prompt-based group I belong to. I played all manner of shows at home, and also got to travel to lovely places in the name of music! Austin, TX, Nashville, TN, all around the Midwest.
After the busyness of 2023, I considered it might be wise to be a bit more rooted for 2024, so one day, on a run (when I solve all the world’s problems in my head) I decided that the next year would be dedicated to ‘Rest in Residency’. This concept worked on two levels – personally, I applied for a few artistic residencies and was able to attend two. And also as a band, since we had recently undergone some departures (Thomas moved to Mexico! Andrew moved to Greece!) and additions (We’re lucky to have Nick Salisbury with us regularly! Dave Mehling! Haley Rydell!), I thought a band residency at the White Squirrel might be just what the doctor ordered, to give us a place to lean into each other.
This became ‘Let’s Play Wednesdays!’ which was THE MOST FUN. Every month had a theme! Guests! Cover songs! It allowed us to find our voice as a unit, and then in January of 2025, we took that spirit to Pachyderm Studios for 4 blissful days of music-making-magic times to record ‘Say Yes’.
Also, I got older, and my kids did, too. I wore a lot of chunky cardigans. I started a small concert series in Ely, MN called ‘The Listen-In’. Let’s Play Wednesday has turned into a shared residency with Doug Collins called ‘Family Dinner’…I wrote more songs…I dreamed more dreams. I counted my lucky stars on the regular.
Say Yes is such a welcoming album. Please tell me what impact your residency at the White Squirrel had on the album. I was lucky enough to catch a few of those shows. They were also so welcoming.
Oh, I love that idea, thank you, Ann. Being welcoming is probably my biggest aim…with shows, with songs. The world is plenty hard, and so if there’s ever a chance that I could allow for someone to feel a bit of ease, or comfort…that’s the dream.
Let’s Play Wednesdays was incredibly impactful on ‘Say Yes’. It was a space where the 5 of us could get to know one another musically, to learn how to listen to and respond to one another. To encourage one another to take the chance, try the thing.
When LPW was a baby-dream, I thought – ‘oh! We’ll meet once a month and I’ll make soup, and we’ll practice, and then we’ll do the show, and it will be great.’ We had soup and practice exactly three times before life and schedules caught up with us. That means the remaining 9 LPW installments were us literally trying out THE THING (a new song, a new cover) in front of people.
Knowing that we could trust one another was imperative, and that trust made all the difference in our four days in the studio. I had come up with a handful of rules for the residency, but they were rules designed to encourage PLAY. And we did – every time! There was a spirit of play on stage, and in the audience.
With each show, I feel like I asked the audience to join us in that journey and THEY said yes. That meant the world to me, and I think we entered the studio buoyed by that cheering.
If your album asks, “How much are we allowed to desire?” I feel like Never Be the Same is the answer, at least for where I am now. And for a minute that made me a little sad until the beautiful, bold, strong end of the song. Do you feel like you came up with a definitive “answer” for the question yourself? Or maybe there’s an answer in each song?
That is a great question, Ann, and I’m certain I’d have a different answer depending on the day (or the moon). I WANT to say that I definitely know we are allowed to desire ALL OF IT. Today, as I’m typing, that feels true. GO ON AND WANT – please oh please. I feel like want, desire – it can be proof of life. Of light. And your light will in turn light my light, and so on. It’s maybe a version of Lizzo’s ‘when I’m shining everybody gonna shine’?
I’m a wife, and a mother, and a daughter, and those roles are always front and center, but I’m also a human person living that one life and I want to want…that musical experience, that sense of electric connection, that giant swoop of laughter, that perfect piece of toast…Also, I do want to be continuously changed by my experiences. So I guess I’m signing up for never being the same. How about you?
There’s a line in Truly Wild (“I am wrong of course but declare it loudly”) that I love. I know you’re a champion of the songwriter challenges, but do you always start with lyrics first? Do you have a measured regime for creating music? How does the magic happen?
Thank you for liking that line. The song started exactly there, with that line – words and music together – and unspooled from that point. This is pretty typical for me. I think that particular line is a ‘say yes’ because it’s the leaning into it. It’s the commitment, the going for it…Whatever the ‘it’ might be for you, or for that moment.
I would say 98% of the time, when I’m writing by myself, it’s some version of that. I write the first line, and then the second, and so on. Lately, I have had some songs that have wanted to be rearranged after the fact (and yes I am anthropomorphizing the song here) – ah! The bridge is the second verse, and there’s a different bridge altogether.
I do kind of have a measured regime, and now that you’ve called it that, I’m going to adopt that term. When I receive my writing prompts – which come Sunday mornings in summer and winter – I sit down with my journal and a candle around 6 a.m. and write 3 pages of freeform writing in response to that word. It’s quiet in my house at that time, so I can sing, as long as I’m really soft about it. Then I head out on my morning run and I sing through whatever has found me that morning. I will sing a line over and over until the next line appears. I’ve grown comfortable with passing the same people day after day and I’m the one who is singing to herself.
Then, I do my best to block off a few hours on that Sunday, or the next day, where I hide away until the song is finished. When I’m writing, I don’t like to hear any other music. I also have a hard time paying attention to actual humans (like the ones I live with), so out of much love for them, I do my best to finish that song fast and furious style. The bonus of this is there is no time to get precious or perfectionistic about it. In the many years pre-challenge, where I wrote very few songs, that sense of preciousness and perfectionism meant less-to-no songs. I say yes to more songs!
Please tell us about the upcoming album release.
We get to celebrate the release of Say Yes at DAKOTA! AHH! I love that space so much. As a listener, it’s where I want to see my favorite musicians, and as a performer, it feels special and could-be-fancy, but also it’s comfortable – because the people that work there care deeply, and you see it in every aspect: sound, lighting, food and service.
The whole band will be there, plus a few special guests will join us for our set. Molly Maher is starting the night out which means so much to me. Any time you watch Molly perform, there is this radius of love that extends from her to the audience, and then right back to her. Being in the audience for a Molly show is a special thing.
I’m thrilled that I’ll get to do that at Dakota on 10/10 – that’s right, 10/10, because…10 out of 10 people would recommend having a release show on such a day! Also, Here’s To You was released on 5/5, and our Christmas show is on 12/12…you now know exactly how nerdy I am.
The big hope for that show is to extend that welcome to everyone who chooses to attend. The ask is: be with us, here. The world can (and will) world out there, but let’s be together for a moment and take a few chances, let music help us feel feelings, all while eating a delicious meal, and looking good under the pretty Dakota lights. Of course, I’m dreaming that people ‘say yes’…
Mostly Minnesota 