[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramaphone #3 and appears here with permission.]
Arkansas native Jason Morphew makes brooding country ballads with a deep voice and a bleeding heart. His music displays a simultaneous hat tip to tradition and a willingness to try new forms, contradictory impulses which are exemplified on Transparent, a diverse collection of recordings, some of which first surfaced on Brassland cassettes. While Morphew mainly sings with only guitar or piano for accompaniment, a few tracks field different environments for his lyrical loneliness. On “Call Me With Your Love,” he shares the vocals with Claudia Gonson of Magnetic Fields, who sings on four other songs as well. “Badass With a Heart of Gold” adds synthesizer craziness, and members of fey popsters Holiday provide occasional backup.