The replay of John Moreland's network television debut is…glorious and affirming and a sucker punch.
If you haven’t seen the songwriter’s 2016 performance from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, you need to scour the Internet until you do. It’s difficult to locate, but well worth the hunt.
Moreland is a big man and looks like nobody who is – or probably should be – famous, based on the cookie cuttter Nashville hit machine. As a result, most people have their doubts when they see him walk onto the stage for the first time.
When he performs, he almost always sits, cradling his acoustic guitar.
But when he begins to sing, doubters are silenced and all that remains is for them to whisper, "Oh, my god."
In Colbert's studio everybody stood, like they were in church.
Moreland sings in one of those accents from flyover country that's impossible to locate and implausible to mimic. (Texas, by way of Northern Kentucky, but mostly Tulsa, as it happens.)
His mother’s family is from Tate County in North Mississippi – near Coldwater, just south of Memphis – and he spent quite a bit of time there as a child and teenager.
His grandfather lives in the veteran’s home in Oxford.
“I have always found Mississippi to be an inspiring place,” he said. “Visiting my grandparents was a chance for me to get away from everything. It was quiet and peaceful and I usually always ended up writing a few songs while I was there.”
Moreland sings directly from his heart, with none of the restraint and filters and caution the rest of us would apply for public protection.
He sings with resolute courage, the same way he writes songs. He writes with simple eloquence about love and faith and isolation and sadness and all the things that leave a majority of us feeling self conscious and inadequate.
Moreland’s songs come from real experiences and more importantly from the real emotions behind those experiences – especially the really sad ones.
“Different people approach songwriting in different ways,” he said. “Writing has always allowed me to exorcise and deal with negative feelings so that I can move on.”
Moreland said he hopes his songs provide that same type of experience to listeners who are trying to do the same thing.
“It’s pretty well known I write some heavy songs,” he said. “They come from a very personal place for me and at the end of the day, it’s all I really have to offer,” he said. “I never really thought I was going to be successful at any of this. I never would have imagined any of this was even remotely possible.”
Moreland said he had gotten used to the idea of sitting in the corner of a bar and playing to people who weren’t really paying attention to him, maybe making $100, and then getting up to go to work the next morning doing something he didn't like doing in the first place.
Instead, song placements on television’s "Sons of Anarchy” and an emerging artist nomination from the Americana Music Association have catapulted him towards a whole new audience thanks to an aggressive touring schedule.
In fact, for the last several years, he has been touring nonstop – usually supported only by fellow Okie songwriter, John Calvin Abney, but occasionally with a full band.
Together, they have toured throughout Europe and have shared bills stateside with musical heavyweights like Jason Isbell, Dawes, Shovels and Rope, John Prine, Iron & Wine, and others.
When he performs Friday evening at The Thirsty Hippo, it will be Moreland’s third visit to the Hub City.
In August 2014, he played a solo show at The Hippo and six months later returned to The Thirsty Hippo for a songwriter-in-the-round show also featuring Caleb Caudle and Aaron Lee Tasjan.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
For more information, call (877) 987-6487 or visit The Thirsty Hippo on Facebook.
