Touring behind his latest release, Ghosts before Breakfast, singer-songwriter Rob Morsberger will play at the Rudyard Kipling this Friday, February 17 at 9:30 p.m. Opening will be indie artist Amelia White.
Morsberger, a pianist, is also a classically-trained composer, who has scored music for Masterpiece Theater, NOVA, and Frontline; one of his arrangements is featured on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack to the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. As a musician and arranger, Morsberger has collaborated with Patti Smith, My Morning Jacket, and many others, and has produced a total of four previous studio albums, including the highly praised The Chronicle of a Literal Man.
Morsberger draws inspiration from an eclectic array of resources -- art, film, books, and history. The video that accompanies the title song, "Ghosts before Breakfast" (see below) is, in fact, a 1927 black-and-white silent by Hans Richter, a Dada artist and abstract filmmaker. (The new album is available right now in digital format from iTunes and Amazon.)
Diagnosed with brain cancer just as he was finishing up work on Ghosts, Morsberger says that he realized, in retrospect, how much of the material about death and mortality must have come through in his writing, even though he didn't know about his grave illness at the time. "…It really hit me how much of this record clearly anticipated my illness…particularly the song ‘Feather in a Stream’. I realized that, deep down, I saw this coming and it came out in my writing."
Morsberger will be performing his songs solo on piano. Tickets are available for $10 at the door on the night of the show. The Rudyard Kipling lists a time of 9:30 p.m., but Amelia White's website lists a time of 8:00 p.m., so plan accordingly.
