Russell Morris ‘Sharkmouth’ has hit a benchmark 200 weeks on the ARIA Blues Chart this week.
‘Sharkmouth’, the first of Russell’s blues trilogy, is at no 18 on the chart while his current album ‘Red Dirt Red Heart’ is at no 15 after 68 weeks.
Morris created the blues album ‘Sharkmouth’ as a labour of love. Russell self-funded the recording before it came to the attention of Ambition Entertainment founder Robert Rigby who then signed it to his Fanfare label.
‘Sharkmouth’ was released on 12 October 2012 by Fanfare after being available prior as an indie release available Russell had 500 copies produced and sold at his gigs.
The three albums in the trilogy ‘Sharkmouth’, ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ and ‘Red Dirt Red Heart’ were themed to represent various stories from Australian history. ‘Sharkmouth’ focused on stories from the depression years and the Aussie characters of the time like the notorious Sydney gangster Thomas ‘Shark Jaws’ Arthur, who inspired the album title.
In 2013 Russell Morris won his very first ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots album for ‘Sharkmouth’. He repeated that feat in 2016 when ‘Red Dirt Red Heart’ won another ARIA. In 2014 ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ was also nominated for the Best Blues and Roots album ARIA Award but missed out to the John Butler Trio’s ‘Flesh & Blood’.
Russell Morris will have a new song for 2017. The original ‘White Feather’ will be featured on the forthcoming ‘Remembrance’ album from Sony as a lead-up to ANZAC Day 2017.
