Cary Morin is simply one of the best acoustic guitarists you are likely to hear, and a master storyteller as well. His 2017 album Cradle to the Gravewas on my Top 10 List for the year in Blues, and also received rave reviews from the Bluegrass and Folk communities.
A Crow tribal member from Montana, he now makes his home in Northern Colorado, where he has won numerous awards from the Colorado Blues Society. Prior to his career as a solo artist, Cary worked with a world-beat band called The Atoll and also with Native American musician Pura Fé. His last 3 albums have documented his progression as a solo performer. His material is mostly his own, but also includes compositions from varied sources such as Prince and Phish.
His astonishing guitar technique, known as “fingerstyle” guitar, involves using all of the fingers of the right hand to create alternating bass and melody figures. Other examples of fingerstyle playing are Flamenco and classical guitar. In North America, this type of playing evolved in the early 1900’s as a way to imitate ragtime piano on the guitar. Some of the best-known Blues fingerstyle guitarists are Blind Blake, Memphis Minnie and Mississippi John Hurt. Although Cary had no specific mentors on guitar, he cited Leo Kottke as an influence, and said his mastery of the guitar came from many hours of practice on his front porch.
Cary said he spent time as a child in the Northwest, when his father was stationed at McChord AFB, but this is only his second trip here as a performer. He was in Port Townsend as a featured performer and teacher at Centrum’s Acoustic Blues Festival and Workshop, and stopped by for this session on his way back to Colorado with his wife and manager Celeste and their dog Zeus.
