Maren Morris
Humble Quest
Columbia Nashville
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As the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait. But in the great city of Nashville, Tennessee, good things come to those who work their asses off. And Maren Morris is the shining embodiment of this fact.
Across three independently released albums and unsuccessful auditions for a slew of small-screen talent programs, validation eluded the ambitious singer-songwriter for more than a decade. In 2013, Morris decided to relocate from her native Arlington, Texas to Nashville, inspired by her friend Kacey Musgraves, who had previously made the same move from Texas. “I love Texas, but I was sort of just getting into this cyclical touring, never really writing, and I just wanted to get out,” Morris confided to the Dallas Observer in 2017. “Kacey opened that door and was like, ‘You should just come up here, you’ll love it. You love to write, you’ll learn so much from the songwriters up here.’ I could just already see myself there and really liking it.”
Musgraves’ prophesy for Morris proved to bear fruit in relatively short order. Once settled in Music City, Morris bolstered her burgeoning resume in the background, writing songs for the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Tim McGraw. But it was only a matter of time until Morris recognized—aided by the encouragement of her colleagues—that it was time for her to make the leap to the front of the stage and the focus of the studio.
Her devotion to her craft finally paid dividends with her GRAMMY-nominated major-label debut album Hero in 2016. Three years later, she followed up her breakthrough inaugural effort with the notably more polished Girl (2019). A stellar set of songs that further showcased her songwriting acumen, Girl also solidified her anti-diva persona, defined by the down-to-earth, self-deprecating relatability that has endeared her to an ever-expanding legion of supporters.
Morris’ third studio affair Humble Quest finds her taking stock of her circuitous path toward the limelight, while celebrating the strength and inspiration she’s found in the connection she shares with her husband Ryan Hurd, who provides co-writing and backing vocal support throughout the album. Having rightfully earned industry-wide credibility and respect, it’s no surprise that she surrounds herself with top-shelf collaborators. Humble Quest is fully produced by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Foo Fighters, Liam Gallagher), who produced three songs on Girl, and features Morris sharing writing duties with Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna, and Jimmie Robbins, among other notable songsmiths.
From beginning to end, Humble Quest is her most thoroughly rewarding artistic statement to date, with her many lyrical charms damn near perfectly calibrated with the superb soundscapes that propel the album forward.
Standout songs exist in abundance throughout Humble Quest, beginning with the album-opening ear candy of first single “Circles Around This Town” with Morris’ soaring chorus and candid reflections about navigating the hyper-competitive Nashville music community. “I've been kind and I've been ruthless / Yeah, got here but the truth is / Thought when I hit it, it'd all look different / But I still got the pedal down / Drivin' circles around this town,” she sings, acknowledging that despite the stardom she’s procured, she hasn’t grown complacent and undermined her devotion to her songcraft in the process.
In a similar thematic vein, the title track “Humble Quest” unfolds as a shimmering anthem of restless passion, as Morris delicately straddles “the line between fulfilled and full of myself.” The gently shuffling, gleaming pop of the exquisite “Detour” finds her examining and taking comfort in life’s vicissitudes, accepting that one’s life path is seldom, if ever, linear and predictable.
Second single “Background Music” is a wistful, meditative paean to music-making and how it shapes her and Hurd’s identities, as she contemplates whether their legacies will be fleeting or enduring in evocative lines like, “Maybe all we'll ever be to them in a hundred years / Is three minutes in a car, in a bar, that says we wеre here / If that's you and mе when it's all said and done / Hard not to see we're the lucky ones / Not everybody gets to leave a souvenir.”
Additional highlights arrive in the form of “The Furthest Thing,” an endearing, daydream-inducing love song that glides atop a lithe melody reminiscent of Musgraves’ “Oh, What a World” from Golden Hour (2018). Morris unabashedly proclaims her love for Hurd as the album progresses, most notably on the gently rollicking “I Can’t Love You Anymore” and the sparse piano ballad “What Would This World Do?” that concludes the album. The couple became first-time parents in 2020 and the subdued yet sublime “Hummingbird” is Morris’ lullaby-like ode to their son.
Earlier in my career, I had the good fortune of traveling down to Nashville from New York City a few times each year, as my work in the radio business involved attending various country music events including the CMA Awards, Country Radio Seminar and Fan Fair (now known as the CMA Music Festival). Upon meeting a multitude of artists, both aspiring and established, and observing their interactions with the hordes of radio and record label personnel at these events, I was struck by just how glaringly machine-like the Nashville country music industry seemed. Knowing all too well that for the majority of the newer artists entering the Music City matrix, their own “circles around the town” would likely become an endless loop until the reality of their ephemeral flirtations with fame set in.
But whether through strokes of serendipity or sheer determination or most likely a combination of the two, a select few artists do manage to finally break through and reap the rewards that Nashville has to offer each year, validating the twists and turns they traversed to get there.
With her artistic integrity and, yes, humility firmly intact, Maren Morris’ still-unraveling story represents an inspiring blueprint for this phenomenon. And Humble Quest affirms that even with three major-label albums to her credit now, she’s still simply scratching the surface of what promises to be a remarkable career.
Notable Tracks: “Circles Around This Town” | “Detour” | “The Furthest Thing” | “Hummingbird”
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