CATCHING UP WITH AWARD-WINNING MUSICIAN, CARY MORIN

by Carmela Lewis

As Richard Higgs of Tulsa Public Radio’s Folk Salad has written, “A man and a guitar, a lot of soul, and an understanding of the history of soulful men with guitars in American music can sometimes achieve this kind of timelessness in their work – if they have the chops. Cary Morin has the chops and is one of the best acoustic pickers on the scene today. His performances… would stand out, variously, among the old-school delta blues pliers, the Greenwich Village folk crowd at the end of the 1950s, the back-to-nature bards of the late 1960’s, or today’s thriving singer/songwriter scene. Morin references all these styles; they’re in his vocabulary, but he’s no dilettante. His engaging sound is his alone….”

Cary Morin is a true mainstay in the Fort Collins music scene. Having arrived sometime around 1984, Cary has come full-circle from his early days as a solo artist to 22 years with local favorites, The Atoll, and now touring internationally as a solo fingerstyle acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter. For two consecutive years (2013 and 2014), Cary won the Colorado Blues Challenge Solo Championship, taking him to Memphis where he competed both years in The International Blues Challenge. He has also been nominated two years in a row for Aboriginal Entertainer of the Year and Best Blues/Folk CD in the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards, and received The Holley Award in 2014 by The Colorado Blues Society’s Members’ Choice Awards. In 2013, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Fort Collins Music Association (FoCoMA) and won the Colorado Fan Favorite Poll in the blues category for his second solo release, Streamline. Cary has a permanent display in the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, and is a featured local artist in the Jazz Alley mural.

Cary’s career in the past four years has taken him from points west of Colorado all the way to the Deep South for the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, to The Copenhagen Blues Festival in Denmark. Cary continues to expand his musical reach, touring wherever his fans will have him. On the road, Cary often has opportunities to meet and play with other renowned artists. He recently performed shows with Bill Kirchen, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Spencer Bohren, Trout Fishing in America, and Ray Bonneville. As a result, he has had the opportunity to invite some of these fine folks to Colorado to share his hometown scene. Red House Records artist, Ray Bonneville, will be joining Cary for a four-show Colorado tour beginning September 24th at Avogadro’s Number here in the Fort. They will play Swallow Hill in Denver, The Salida SteamPlant, and the Gryphon Theatre in Laramie. Cary will also be representing FOCO this month at The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival on September 19th & 20th, and has plans to tour Europe again in the summer of 2016.

Keep up with Cary at carymorin.com