Luke Morris – Long Desert Highway

Long Desert Highway is really a cinematic type of album, drawn from collection of short fictional stories and characters set against a quiet rugged landscape. It follows the lives of people living on farms, remote desert border towns, and in the quiet spaces between one life and the next. It began with the title track, ‘Long Desert Highway.’ An idea of driving through the desert, conjuring up these short creative stories of the light and dark moments living on long dirt roads away from the crowds and the quiet corners of the country. Inspired by concept albums such as ‘Inyo’ by Bruce Springsteen, ‘The Party by Andy Shauf and ‘Chávez Ravine’ by Ry Cooder, Long Desert Highway was a chance for me to explore a type of creative writing I had not before. Where place and emotion run hand in hand through the whole record. I wanted the environment to provoke a feeling just as much as the characters give meaning to the environment. Most of the songs were recorded in a small cabin on a property in the Northern Rivers and Produced by Sam Joseph and Paul Pilsonic. Weaving between soft acoustic country Ballads, accompanied by pedal steel, piano to more electric ‘Aussicana’ style songs featuring guitars, organs, 80s Juno Keys and synths. Long Desert Highway is a journey album, where the characters remain somewhere between who they are and whoever the listener imagines them to be.