Kendra Morris recalls singers who straddled soul and rock during the early '70s, such as Ruth Copeland and Chaka Khan, while her contemporaries include the likes of Charles Bradley, Alice Russell, and Mayer Hawthorne. Morris's musical taste was developed through her parents' record collection, a library heavy on late-60s and early-70s soul and funk. During her childhood Morris's main companion was her karaoke machine, which she used for the sake of recording and learning to harmonize with herself. While enrolled in college in Tampa, FL, she became so involved in performing with bands that she decided to dropout and take on music full time. She took up the guitar, as well as songwriting, and eventually involved herself with a band which moved to New York in 2004 and split shortly thereafter. Morris took to recording songs on her own with an old Tascam 8 track she found in a shop in the east village and began releasing songs on myspace and through iTunes. Her self-titled EP (2010), was recorded with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Page (of That Handsome Devil). After touring with legendary guitarist Dennis Coffey and releasing a series of singles which included "Concrete Waves," whose b-side was remixed by DJ Premier, Morris released the album Banshee (2012) on Wax Poetics. In 2013, Morris returned with the covers album Mockingbird.
Both Banshee and Mockingbird received critical acclaim and a cult following, with several film + tv placements. The title track "Banshee" was used prominently in the Showtime hit series Ray Donovan, while her cover of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" found itself in the trailer for major motion picture Dead Man Down.
In between extensive international touring and promotion for Banshee throughout 2013 and 2014, Morris worked on a small side project band with friends Scarlett Johansson, Julia Haltigan and Holly Miranda, releasing one single called "Candy." Kendra returned with her own follow up EP titled Babble in June of 2016. Another record to great all around reviews she continued working on more music as well putting an added focus to her visual art and connecting it further into her music world. Having been collaging for a number of years and creating art for her records and editing her own visual video projections to go with the live sets, she hand collaged fifty individual record covers for Babble, hiding herself in each one and sold out in less than a week. She also had been experimenting with hand animating her collages and wound up both directing and animating the recent music video for the hip hop supergroup Czarface and legendary MF DOOM collaboration record Czarface Meets Metal Face titled "Bomb Thrown" . The video so far has received rave reviews including online giant Mass Appeal citing it as one of the top 10 music videos of 2018 so far.
Acclaimed bombshell songstress Julia Haltigan embodies New York. She grew up on NYC’s Lower East Side when it oozed a heady mix of danger, possibility, and art. Julia emerged from it all a sensitive badass who rides vintage Triumph motorcycles and sings primal rock n’ roll with smoldering expressivity.
It has been only fitting Jameson Whiskey selected Julia for their music program representing various U.S. cities. The appointment made Julia consider her surroundings, and pen the quintessential Julia Haltigan New York musical statement. Today, she announces a series of singles that pay tribute to the street-tough poetics and gritty rock n’ roll of Big Apple icons like Television, Blondie, Suicide, Lou Reed, and, even, Beastie Boys. Her upcoming singles are produced by native New Yorker Andrew Raposo with one track produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek.
There is hollowness and grit that epitomizes New York rock n’ roll. The music is lean, soulful, jittery, and overflowing with vulnerability and juicy tales told with literate flair. Julia’s to-be-released collection of songs captures this vibe with an artist-in-her-natural-habitat panache. The songs were tracked in true New York fashion, during freewheeling sessions that featured a host of old friends with accomplished careers. Producer Andrew Raposo is a high school-era buddy of Julia, and he is a former member of hip-hop-influenced acts Automato and Gaijin. Currently, he is a member of dark indie-disco act Midnight Magic. TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek produced Julia when she worked with Scarlett Johansson & Kendra Morris in the band Sugar for Sugar, and, here, he makes a cameo to produce the single “Bad Habits.”
Julia has toured extensively through the US, and throughout the UK and Ireland. She has performed as a part of the Varvatos Music Series, filling the store over capacity leaving a line around the block, and live on tastemaking radio personality Vin Scelsa's show Idiot's Delight. She also shared the stage with such venerated names as Judy Collins, Shannon Shaw, Steve Earle, Cory Chisel, Norah Jones, Montgomery Gentry, Rhett Miller, Nicole Atkins & Mike Scott of the Waterboys (whom she co-wrote her song How To Make A Broken heart with) among others. These days, she is part of the Jameson Whisky artist roster alongside Shannon Shaw (of the Clams), Robert Ellis, Katie Schecter, Ayron Jones, Twelve’Len, Kami, Cedrice, and Wes Watkins.
Outside of her solo career, Julia moonlights as the slinky Jessica Rabbit-inspired jazz crooner “Vivian Fairchild” in the off-Broadway hit Sleep No More. She is also a member of the fizzy pop band The Singles, alongside her buddies Scarlett Johansson, Kendra Morris and Holly Miranda. They released singles "Candy" and a cover of “Bizarre Love Triangle” for AMFARs The Time Is Now compilation. She’s had songs featured in shows such as Bloodline and recently, made an acting cameo in HBO’s hit series The Deuce—look for her in an episode during the show’s third and final season. When not onstage or in the studio, Julia can be found straddling a 1970 Triumph Bonneville.
Local support from Belles of the Levee.