This story is featured in CityBeat's April 3 print edition.
Straddling the Southwest heartland, Oklahoma has been the home of many roots music artists, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Wills to Leon Russell. Keeping in this folk/country tradition, singer-songwriter John Moreland offers his own 21st century update of dust bowl balladry.
Though born in Texas, Moreland and family resettled in Tulsa, OK, which he still considers home. Moreland began playing guitar in local punk bands, but soon evolved into a singular, acoustic artist with nine indie records released so far.
With its acoustic dynamics and terse lyricism, High on Tulsa Heat from 2015 is the essential record that provided Moreland a higher, alt-country profile. On last year’s tour, he celebrated the 10th anniversary release of In The Throes, one of his most stripped down, self-produced efforts. Like the majority of Moreland’s music, it’s a spare, acoustic revelation steeped in sorrow, grit, and abandoned love. A few songs, like “Spells” and “Heaven” were even used as moody soundtrack textures on the hit show Sons of Anarchy.
Moreland’s wounded baritone and fingerpicking prowess imbue all his songs with gravitas, and a deep, emotional intimacy develops between singer and listener. Birds in the Ceiling, his most recent record from 2022, adds more atmospheric layers with muted keyboards and synths, but his acoustic guitar still dominates.
In a 2022 interview with The Boot, Moreland explains the genesis of his writing: “When I started writing songs, I was transitioning into adulthood and starting to try to make sense of where I come from and who I am and who am I gonna be. . . It’s been consistently — I wouldn’t call it a struggle, but it is definitely the journey that I am still on.”
John Moreland plays the Ludlow Garage on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. Info: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.
