Night Train is an album by the American musician Bill Morrissey, released in 1993.[2][3] Morrissey promoted the album with a North American tour that included shows with Cheryl Wheeler.[4][5]
Production
The album was produced by Ellen Karas.[6] Morrissey's lyrics were inspired more by fiction writers than by other songwriters; he wrote the album in four weeks.[4][7]David Johansen sang on "Love Arrives".[8]Duke Levine played guitar on the album; Billy Conway and Johnny Cunningham played drums and violin, respectively.[9][10][11]
"Birches" is about a longtime married couple.[12] "Sandy" examines organized religion.[13] "Letter from Heaven" describes humorous encounters in heaven with famous deceased musicians, including Robert Johnson and Dizzy Gillespie.[14][15]
Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Morrissey’s creaky voice is the perfect instrument to tell these proud losers’ tales. Put simply, he is the best folk songwriter working today."[18]Rolling Stone stated that "Morrissey's songs capture the stark, hardscrabble milieus of a subterranean New England culture—rootless drifters, despondent cabbies, beery, down-on-their-luck deckhands."[19]The Atlanta Journal-Constitution concluded that Morrissey's "small stories focus on the subtle truths glanced between the observed subject and the subject observing."[20]
The Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph determined that, "unlike the '70s sensitive men (Jackson Browne, James Taylor), who wore out their welcome by whining about messed-up relationships, Morrissey and his peers ... seem to address their male inadequacies with at least a snicker of humor"; the paper listed the album among the 20 best of 1993.[21][22] The Chicago Tribune noted that "Morrissey's characters are inevitably middle-aged, crumbling around the edges, and yet, somehow, dealing with it."[23]
AllMusic wrote that "the sound on this album is more stripped down, as basic as a Lou Reed record and just as effective."[16]
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