Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people, November 4th, 2008.

It was the longest night It was the darkest night And we found ourselves by candlelight Talked of the year that's been Where all that time went Prayed we had something to show for it We asked some brilliant questions ooh Wrote down our best intentions ooh We didn't need to speak the words to make them true Take me back to the moment where I didn't know What I didn't know Take me back to that moment The one right before the one where you had to go We let the hours slip by content to occupy This little corner of the universe that's yours and mine Winter had just begun, we were turning toward the sun Let our imaginations run ahead and away with us We made a few confessions, ooh Shared some painful lessons, ooh Vowed to always treat the morning as brand new Take me back to that moment Where I didn't know what I didn't know Take me back to that moment The one right before the one Where you had to go Now I hold this memory Like a ticket stub in my jacket pocket Sometimes I'm lucky and my fingers find it On a cold spring afternoon When it's nice to have a little proof Take me back to that moment where I didn't know what I didn't know Take me back to that moment The one right before the one where you had to go The one right before the one The one right before the one The one the one right before the one The one before I'm Sarah Morris.

I am a singer and a songwriter and a mama and my music sounds like I like to think it sounds like a cozy sweater but maybe that's not what people want to hear.

No my music is Americana, country influenced, but certainly with a lifetime of listening to pop music and jazz all like kind of stuck in there and some musical theater.

So hard to say what your music sounds like these days because I know what it feels like.

It feels good to sing it.

I have always made music.

There was no getting into music for me.

I was a singer like in my mom's living room and luckily have found, stumbled in little ways, that I've been able to make music forever.

I went to college and studied music education and vocal performance and then I moved to Nashville and I would say that I found my footing in music when I moved back home and after I had some babies.

Back in 2011 was kind of when I really started dedicating myself to writing music, performing music.

Hello my name is.. next to a marker Pick it up fill it in, shouldn't be too hard Hello my name is - a conversation starter Go on now, begin, tell us who you are Hello my name is - a slight hesitation as you Consider if it fits after the year that you've been through Hello my name is... do you hear an invitation To maybe shed the skin that hides your deeper truth Hello my name is Hello my name is a handful of letters strung together Chosen by your grandma, your mother had another one in mind But she was young and tired so on that cold November night she whispered in tandem with your first cry sure that'll suit her fine sure that'll suit her fine Hello my name is Echoes in this room of strangers and Means a little less with each offering you make Hello my name is Surely there's a bar, here Oh this evening's wearing thin Next time you might leave that space blank Hello my name is a gift to your next lover It's syllables on their lips before they open to a sigh Hello my name is... perhaps select a new one Figure you'll grow in to its opulence and shine Ooh ooh ooh hello my name is... Ooh ooh... hello my name is A rose is a rose is a rose Everybody knows that doesn't come close To getting it right A rose is a rose is a rose The story goes all subtlety lost ln our rush to define by a handful of letters Strung together stuck to you forever like glue Hello my name is Hello my name is Hello my name is You've forgotten what you came for Hello my name is You're scanning for the door Hello my name is... Gonna follow you wherever Hello my name is stuck to you forever Handful of letters, a handful of letters Woo - a handful of letters, a handful of letters Hello my name is My songwriting process is one of my favorite things that I've kind of found my way to over the last decade and a half.

I belong to a group of humans who have committed to writing a song a week in the summer based on certain writing prompts and in the winter we do a song every other week.

So when I look at the whole year of songwriting there's going to be 20 times that I sit down and I carve out space intentionally to write a song within 48 hours.

I'm really dedicated to the process of journaling every day, freeform writing, and a lot of times that leads me to songs when I'm not in one of those seasons of writing with that group.

I run every morning and so a lot of songs get written on runs, a lot of songs get written in the car.

So it's kind of found its way into both a dedicated practice because I think I believe that inspiration wants to find you working.

I've heard that phrase in a couple different formats but I believe it to be true, like you have to sometimes just sit down and try for it.

And also every once in awhile I'll be in the shower and the song will just come right out of the shower head and like hit my head and make it out.

Champagne on a Wednesday why not Give me a reason, well okay then sit back and watch this baby fly And it does so you're laughing Holding the glasses they overflow We're high before the foam reaches our lips I can't stop smiling oh this is all I really wanted Everything I need Look at you letting go If you could see what I see You are effervescent, light as air Bright as the moon, the full kind on a clear night A glittery hot air balloon You are effervescent, incandescent The sparkle of a billion stars I've never known anything as brilliant as you are you are I'm going to put on my new dress Impress all the neighbors would you do me a favor put on Something that makes you feel like dancing We'll find ourselves an empty parking lot I'll turn up the volume on this old boom box that's been collecting dust since we were 17 I mean This is all I really wanted, everything I need Shrug all that worry from your shoulders Travel back in time with me You are effervescent, light as air Bright as the moon, the full kind on a clear night A glittery hot air balloon You are effervescent, incandescent The sparkle of a billion stars I've never known anything as brilliant as you are you are I've heard the stories you tell yourself No wonder you're not sleeping well Let me paint you something new Something closer to the truth that you are you are you are Effervescent, light as air You're bright as the moon The full kind on a clear night A glittery hot air balloon You are effervescent, incandescent The sparkle of a billion stars I've never known anything as brilliant as you are you are Cuz you are you are you are you are you are you are I'm really influenced by people I meet just as far as like a human.

You know like what I'm going to write about, it's just the people I love, the people I see.

I am inspired all the time by nature and that creeps in to as many songs as possible.

I think everything is a little autobiographical and everything's a little bit not.

There are songs that are straight this one's for my husband, this one's for my daughter, this is for my son.

I have a song that's called Hello My Name Is that has verses that are not autobiographical like they have not happened to me in that exact way.

But then there are these bridge sections that are completely the truth.

So I think once you write a lot of songs, everything's about you and nothing's about you at the same time.

A hint of the grand design, a peek at the master plan A whisper that the cards I need are already in my hand A couple of neon signs shaped like an arrow Saying 'right this way' to the path I'm meant to travel A bit of confirmation I belong where I am at I could use some of that I've been stumbling around a little blind I miss the forest every time But I can tell you the secrets of a single pine I get lost but I don't mind As long as the story I find is all mine Tonight I will repair what's slowly come apart Revel in the comfort of my quilted heart Put some brand new strings on this old guitar And sing my way through another false start If I'm lucky the words will come out right In phrases at once simple and sublime As long as they are true I don't care if they rhyme But wouldn't that be nice Oh I've been stumbling around a little blind I miss the forest every time but I can tell you the secrets of a single pine I get lost but I don't mind As long as the story I find is all mine The miles and miles of right wrong turns The lessons I've tried hard to learn Each beautiful scar I've earned All mine Oh I've been stumbling around a little blind I miss the forest every time But I can tell you the secrets of a single pine I get lost but I don't mind As long as the story I find is all mine So today I'm going to sing a couple songs off an album I released not very long ago called Here's To You and the title track has been one of those songs that I wrote for one reason and then as I go on in my life and have other experiences it's come to mean different things to me.

It's essentially celebrating a change but a change that you might not have gone searching for the ending of a thing.

When I wrote it, I wrote it coming from the place of my kids were going back to school for the first time in 18 months, I had a few things in the music world that were shifting, I didn't want any of these changes per se but also I did.

Like it was the both and.

I'm constantly struck by the both and of things.

And most recently I've been singing that song all summer, all fall because it was on this album that I put out and on that album, if you were to listen to it, you'd hear the beautiful guitar playing of this gentleman Thomas Nordland, who's been at my side playing guitar with me for over a decade.

And this past summer he moved to Mexico and all summer that song meant for me instead like oh my gosh my dear friend is leaving and things are changing here for me in a really profound way.

But what I like about what the song has given me back and hopefully to another listener might offer this is like everything is changing but let's celebrate what's been here rather than just digging the heels in and resisting the change or just seeing it as a sad thing.

It can have some of that grief, absolutely, but also it can have some of that celebration of the fact that you ever loved that person that much at all.

So that's Here's to You and it's been a real big honor to kind of keep figuring out what that means as I sing it.

Pin up your hair kind of fancy like The nape of your neck on display Slip on a dress with a skirt that sways at your knees That plays in the early autumn breeze The one that's saying everything everything everything everything is changing In subtle shifts and also with grand rearrangings everything everything everything everything's changing Let's mark the passing of time Please raise your glass against mine I've had this bottle for who knows how long do layers of dust work like rings in trees It's been waiting for years so we'll let it breathe Open up I've decided that we have earned the good stuff If everything everything everything everything's changing In subtle shifts and also with grand rearrangings Everything everything everything everything's changing Let's mark the passing of time Please raise your glass against mine We were something weren't we Yes, I think so too So here's to me my love but mostly here's to you It's been my privilege to learn language of your passing clouds, your furrowed brows, tiny laughs, your shoulders back, your million different smiles Could you stay a little while longer a little while longer If everything everything everything everything's changing In subtle shifts and also with wild rearrangings Everything everything everything everything's changing Let's mark the passing of time Please raise your glass against mine We were something weren't we Yes I think so, too So here's to me my love but mostly here's to you Here's to you Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote the people, November 4th, 2008