It’s not hard to find music that romanticizes the cityscapes and fast-paced hustle of East and West Coast cities (think Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” or 2Pac’s “California Love,” to name just a few). However, when it comes to idealizing the heartland, the catalog is much thinner.
Singer-songwriter Kevin Morby’s forthcoming album, Little Wide Open, sentimentalizes the less-pined after landscapes of the Midwest—most notably, the sweeping plains of Kansas. “It’s a highway album,” he says. The indie-rocker’s eighth studio album will debut May 15, and on May 29, he’ll bring the record home with a performance at Uptown Theater.
If you’re not familiar with Morby’s music, he’s arguably one of the most prolific artists to come out of Kansas City in the 21st century (along with names like Janelle Monáe and Logan Richardson). Originally from Overland Park, Morby spent over a decade calling both New York City and Los Angeles home, and he’s traveled the world with his down-to-earth musical storytelling. Most recently, R&B legend and civil rights activist Mavis Staples covered one of Morby’s most popular tracks, “Beautiful Strangers.” Staples’ rendition of the protest song, which Morby wrote in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attack at Paris’ iconic Bataclan theater, garnered a Grammy Award this past February.
I grabbed lunch with Morby to talk roadtrips, his formative years in KC, performing for his hometown and more.
As a teenager from Overland Park in the early aughts, Morby cut his teeth playing DIY shows in the Crossroads and in run-down warehouses throughout the West Bottoms. He played drums in punk band Creepy Aliens and fondly recalls his first show as a solo artist at Prospero’s Books in Midtown.
On the precipice of social media’s big boom, Morby recalls KC’s music scene as “very word of mouth,” having to carve out his own lane. “It’s so funny to think about,” he says. “I booked shows through friends or by just going into a venue and asking if I could play there. I remember it fondly for those reasons—it was very organic.”
By the time Morby turned 18, he was ready to push his budding career further and, having never even visited, moved to New York City. He says his upbringing in KC’s gritty DIY scene prepared him well for the transition.
“Having the ability to do stuff ourselves, with the community I was a part of [in Kansas City], made you feel like there was no one to tell you couldn’t,” Morby says. “In New York, I found a similar community that was operating on a much bigger scale. I felt really primed to enter the scene there because of where I grew up. In fact, it was a lot harder to do in the Midwest, but we still pulled it off.”
In NYC, the musician played bass for folk rock band Woods and co-fronted The Babies. Eventually, with more experience as a bandleader and songwriter, he decided it was time to strike out on his own. In 2013, Morby released his debut solo album, Harlem River, shortly after relocating to Los Angeles.
A couple years later, after getting what Morby describes as his first “real chunk of money from music,” he bought a house in downtown Overland Park. He initially rented it out to a friend, but when the house became vacant, it felt like the right time to come home. After 12 years away, he told himself he’d try it out for six months.
“It’s been eight years,” Morby says. Today, he continues to reside in Overland Park with his partner, Katie Crutchfield, who leads Americana project Waxahatchee.
Morby says KC’s more leisurely life pace is conducive to writing, which is well-reflected in his upcoming album Little Wide Open. “I can burn myself out in a bigger city very easily, and I find that my creative life gets pushed to the side,” Morby says. “Life moves much slower here—there’s a lot of time and space, and I have to fill that somehow. That’s where a lot of my creativity surfaces.”
Road trips are one of the things that keep Morby occupied. “I love solo drives, adventuring by myself or with my partner, Katie,” he says. “There are so many great day drives—Memphis, Arkansas, Oklahoma. I do a lot of adventuring out here.”
He points to two of the album’s singles, “Die Young” and “Javelin,” as representative of the project. Shaped by his frequent and often arbitrary travels, much of the hour-long record was written in the in-between moments of his busy touring schedule. “Coming out of the pandemic and going back to touring was such a whiplash effect,” he says. “It was a funny sensation to be traveling the world and then having an isolating week or two. When I was home, I was still trying to keep to myself, so I’d go to a random town for a night just to work on music.”
Now, as he gears up to tour the record, even a seasoned performer like Morby admits that performing for his hometown is still nerve-wracking.
“It’s stressful,” he says. “It’s when family and friends come—it feels like a wedding or something. It’s great.”
