Vaporizer

10 Songs | MR039 | Release Date 2008 With the release of Vaporizer, Jason Morphew establishes himself as one of the most gifted songwriters now going.  Having listened to a good bit of his previous work, I was aware of this gift of his, but with Vaporizer, everything has come together in a new and appropriate way.  This may have something to do with the way this album has been produced, but it’s not just that.  The songs themselves—melodically and lyrically—seem possessed of a new and unusual clarity.  I think of Willie Nelson’s The IRS Tapes, not because The IRS Tapes have a similar sound (they don’t), but because that album, too, is an instance of a performer’s coming into a new and appropriate degree of clarity.  It’s something like when you can’t get a radio station to come in without static, and then suddenly there it is, clear, closer to you.  This sort of clarity is rare, of course, and when it occurs I always feel a strange sort of release.  This is probably my being released f