Sarah White and Keith Morris & The Crooked Numbers

About Sarah White: Sarah White (Charlottesville VA) is a tremendous songwriter who might resemble some kind of Hazel Dickens/Patti Smith/Cat Power love child. She's released records on Jagjaguwar and Antenna Farm and won Best Song at the 2007 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest.  Her 2008 album White Light became a cult favorite for its eclectic blend of driving folk-rock, sorrowful country ballads and experimental, personal narrative songs -- the trifecta that defines her lengthening body of work.  These days Sarah performs with her band, a a dynamic hybrid of pop, honky tonk and post-punk that owes as much to Gunclub and X as Wilco and Lucinda Williams.

About Keith Morris: In the tradition of songwriting greats Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Vic Chesnutt, Keith Morris & The Crooked Numbers combine literate songwriting with accomplished musicianship to create music that gets at the heart of how it feels to be alive.  Described by singer/songwriter Danny Schmidt as a “street hustler/spirt guide,”  Morris embodies the voice of the outsider pushed to an edge by personal experience amidst a world that seems intent on collapse.  A feeling of alienation runs through the music, as does a palpable psychological urgency, and an innate yearning–a search for deliverance, for redemption amidst decay.  This is honest, gritty music that rings true to something essential.  “The core at the center of ‘Love Wounds & Mars’ is this Keith Morris character,” writes songwriter/poet Tom House.  “Every song–slash lines smart like Dylan–he defines himself, how he deals with his world, views it, beats it, and is beaten by it.”

The Crooked Numbers, stellar players handpicked from Charlottesville’s fertile music scene, alternately wail, whisper, slam, float and sting throughout.  Subtle nuance in one song turns to catharsis in another, and the band handles the varying moods seamlessly.  “The first impression of a sonically sturdy jam session–sometimes a bash, sometimes a collective bashing–is completely satisfying,” writes singer/songwriter Paul Curreri.  “But ‘Love Wounds & Mars’ unfolds to reveal a woven gut of lonely characters, angry towns, toll roads leading to highways that stretch out. It’s an album you listen to by yourself, a soundtrack for making your big plans to break the fuck free.”