Lorrie Morgan “Dead Girl Walking” (LP) 

Lorrie Morgan hasn’t let the passage of time dampen her talents or drive to record music. Her new collection Dead Girl Walking has the same vibrancy and musicality that has characterized Morgan’s work throughout her recording history. The same inspiration present in her 1992 classic Something in Red, a decade-defining effort that still lingers in the memories of country music fans. Aging hasn’t robbed her vigor.

URL: https://lorrie.com/

It hasn’t dulled her unbridled heart. There’s a lot of proof for that in the album’s opener “Hands on You”. The lyrics portray Morgan’s craven desire with artful skill. Horns duel with reverb-driven guitar work over an irresistible drum beat that keeps the song percolating from the first. It’s a lean and hyper-focused opening for the album. She re-directs her musical energies for the second track. Placing the album’s title song this early in the track listing is a show of self-assurance on Morgan’s part. It’s a justified move.

“Dead Girl Walking” has a steady marching tempo with an assortment of guitar flourishes and fills scattering musical exclamation points throughout the arrangement. She sings about trying to go on after a broken relationship with such an emphatic feeling that you live through the pain with her. It’s the mark of a great singer. Another mark of great vocalists is the ability to shift gears. She transitions seamlessly from the balladry of “Dead Girl Walking” into the relaxed traditional country of “Me and Tequila”.

It’s a song you could play strictly for laughs, but Morgan refrains. Instead, “Me and Tequila” develops as a patient musical character study. There are occasions to find humor throughout the song, but she doesn’t interpret it for the yuck-yuck factor alone. Morgan hits on an undercurrent of sadness present in the subject matter and exploits it with great skill. It may be one of the album’s sleeper gems. The guitar work deserves notice as well. Solid acoustic playing lays down the song’s groundwork as electric guitar adornments fill the performance with attention-grabbing color.

“Mirror, Mirror” generates slowly evolving gravitas. It begins in stark fashion, piano and Morgan’s voice locked in duet, and builds incrementally. Her talent for realizing a powerful ballad is at its peak with this track. It’s impressive how she keeps a steady hand at the wheel as “Mirror, Mirror” never veers into ham-fisted theatrics. It’s a fantastic and moving performance. Measured keyboard playing and Morgan’s upper register vocal pyrotechnics are crucial strengths of “What Will I Do?”, but that’s not all that’s working in its favor. This Mickey Newbury-authored tune arguably features the album’s best lyrical content and Morgan fully realizes its worth for listeners.

“I Almost Called Him Baby by Mistake” is another lyric showcase. Written by Larry Gatlin, a country music legend, Lorrie Morgan again shows her keen ear for great material. It is more beholden to traditional country music than many other Dead Girl Walking cuts but never cliched. Lorrie Morgan’s Dead Girl Walking is full of high points and breathtaking performances that other artists never reach or deliver. She is still an elite talent decades after her debut, and this new collection ranks among her finest work.

Mark Druery