Cary Morin — Reflecting and Improving During Trying Times

Steven Bonifazi

While the country is isolating due to Covid-19, guitarist Cary Morin is concentrating on improving his craft while stuck at home.

“From my own personal experience, I always want to make the show a little better if I can,” said Morin.

Born and raised in Billings, MT, Morin relocated to Colorado in 1983 and has worked with bands in Northern Colorado since the late ’80s. Having written his first bit of music in his early teens, Morin has been writing and performing for over thirty years.

“I had a brother who played guitar and when he went off to college he left one behind and my dad really loved to play and sing songs so I picked it up and just taught myself how to play,” said Morin.

Aside from the guitar, Morin used to play the piano and some fiddle as his love for folk and rock music developed. Morin describes the music he makes today as “folk-based blues.”

Playing fingerstyle guitar today, he has a vast love for music, drawing inspiration from an array of influences and genres ranging from jazz and reggae to country-blues and Cajun.

“When I was around 12 or 13, my brother gave me a George Benson album and I fell in love with that fast melodic bubbly thing and bought all the albums that I could get my hands on,” said Morin.

Over the last ten years, as the climate of the music industry has changed, Morin has primarily performed solo. Fresh off the fumes of a newly finished album recorded in Maurice, LA, originally planned to release in August, Morin is sitting tight to see how Covid-19 plays out.

Lately, through his music page on Facebook, Morin has been playing live shows from home for virtual audiences. Only a few weeks ago, beginning in early January, Morin was touring on his annual Barbecue tour until Covid-19 broke out, forcing him to cancel the remainder of his tour. “For six or seven years we’ve been leaving Fort Collins around New Year’s Eve, heading down south through Oklahoma and playing shows in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.”

Regardless of his disappointment in the loss of his gigs, Morin finds this strange time of social distancing and virtual concerts from home useful and beneficial to both audiences and artists. Fans get to enjoy live music from their couch. While Morin has always enjoyed playing for audiences where you are not competing with a lot of noise and background commotion, so playing from his home has been surprisingly enjoyable. The only thing Morin finds himself competing with when performing at home is “man’s best friend” — his dog barking.

The impacts of Covid-19 have been detrimental to people around the world and musicians have not been spared. However, as the music business has changed dramatically since the 1970s, musicians like Morin have learned to adapt.

Among the leading factors of the change prior to Covid-19, were raising the legal drinking age in many states from 18 to 21, altering the make-up of audiences in bars and clubs, and the birth of the internet with its 24/7 free access to unlimited amounts of music.

“I hesitate to say there is anything good about what’s going on right now, but I am learning to adapt as I always have over the years. Change has always been the nature of the business,” said Morin.

For more information about Cary Morin and his work, please visit his website at:

https://www.carymorin.com/home

or his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CaryMorinBlues/