Lorrie Morgan

Early life Loretta Lynn Morgan was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 27, 1959. Morgan's father died in 1975, so she and the members of his band toured various small clubs until 1977, when they disbanded and she began touring with Roy Wiggins. After this, she worked as a receptionist, songwriter, and demo singer for Acuff-Rose Music. which issued two singles in 1979: "Two People in Love" and "Tell Me I'm Only Dreaming," written by Eddy Raven and Liz Anderson, respectively. Both singles made the lower regions of the Hot Country Songs charts that year. Another single, "I'm Completely Satisfied with You", featured electronically overdubbed vocals of her father. It also made the charts by year's end. followed by "Don't Go Changing" and "If You Came Back Tonight". Of these, only "Don't Go Changing" charted.

1989–1991: RCA Records Morgan signed to RCA Records Nashville in 1988 and released her first single for that label, "Trainwreck of Emotion", that year. The song reached number 20 on the Hot Country Songs chart and served as the lead single to her debut album Leave the Light On. Following this were "Dear Me" and "Out of Your Shoes"; these both went top ten on Hot Country Songs, After this song came "Five Minutes", her first number one on Hot Country Songs, and then another top ten in "He Talks to Me". The Chicago Tribune writer Jack Hurst rated the album four out of four stars, referring to it as "fine, well-produced songs and a compelling performer". In 1993, Leave the Light On earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of one million copies.

Her second RCA album Something in Red came out in 1991. Also certified platinum by the RIAA, which also appeared on the latter's 1992 album Eagle When She Flies. Richard Landis produced the album except for the duet, which Parton produced with Steve Buckingham and Gary Smith. Contributing songwriters included Skip Ewing, Reed Nielsen, and Chris Waters. Brian Mansfield of AllMusic reviewed Something in Red favorably, noting that it had fewer "sad songs" than its predecessor while highlighting the "laidback country and ballads like the title track". Her first BNA album, Watch Me, came out that same year. The title track was the first single, achieving a peak of number two on Hot Country Songs. The followup "What Part of No" became her second number-one single on that chart in early 1993; it was also her longest-reigning, holding that position for three weeks. Mansfield praised the album as being superior to its predecessors, but criticized "What Part of No" and Morgan's cover of Bonnie Tyler's "It's a Heartache". Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly rated the album "B", stating that "Morgan is a take-charge singer with more than a little vulnerability beneath her steely surface as well as an ability to adopt pop stylings without straining her country credibility." Watch Me became her third consecutive platinum album by the end of 1993. The album charted two seasonal entries on Hot Country Songs: a rendition of "My Favorite Things" in late 1993, and of "Sleigh Ride" two years later. A year after the album's release, Morgan began a special holiday tour which featured her performing songs from the album with orchestral backing. She also made her acting debut in this timespan, starting with the 1993 made-for-TV movie Proudheart on the defunct TNN (The Nashville Network). It featured her in the starring role as an assembly-line worker who moves back to a small town in Tennessee after the death of her father. In 1994, she portrayed the lead role in a television pilot for CBS called Lorelei Lee. The show focused on a country music-singing detective, but the pilot was not picked up for series. The following year, she appeared in the ABC TV movie The Stranger Beside Me.

BNA issued her next studio album, War Paint, in 1994. The album's singles were unsuccessful on the charts, with "My Night to Howl" peaking at number 31 on Hot Country Songs, "If You Came Back from Heaven" failing to reach top 40, and "Heart Over Mind" stopping at number 39. Nash noted Morgan's ability to sing songs with "intimacy" and "attitude", but criticized the "Native American stereotypes" of the title track. By year's end, Morgan had also begun touring as a headlining artist for the first time.

In 1995, Morgan released her first Greatest Hits album. It included most of her major hit singles to that point, along with three new tracks which were all issued as singles: "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" became her third and final number-one hit that year, followed by the top-five "Back in Your Arms Again", but a cover of Billie Jo Spears' "Standing Tall" was less successful on the charts. While the followup single "I Just Might Be" failed to make top 40 on Hot Country Songs, the album's last single "Good as I Was to You" reached number four in 1997. Thom Owens of AllMusic, Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly, and Jeffrey B. Remz of Country Standard Time all praised the album for its varied sounds, with particular emphasis on its ballads.

She also released Shakin' Things Up in 1997. It featured the top-ten hit "Go Away" and the top-20 single "One of Those Nights Tonight", but the following singles "I'm Not That Easy to Forget" and a cover of Bobbie Cryner's "You Think He'd Know Me Better" both failed to make top 40. Morgan held her first co-production credit on the album, doing so with Stroud; backing vocalists on the album included John Cowan, Vern Gosdin, and Randall. Tom Roland of The Tennessean considered the album her strongest since Something in Red, saying that it "combines a commanding, upbeat attitude with a few moments of subtle disturbance. And does so flawlessly." Shakin' Things Up also earned a gold certification. Morgan performed ten concerts in 1998 which promoted the album, with Adair and a small orchestra accompanying her. Charlotte Dillon of AllMusic wrote that "her voice and emotional delivery are up to the test, even for old ballads and standards", while Nash found her delivery "overly dramatic".

Her last BNA studio album was My Heart in 1999. and the Jo Dee Messina duet "The Things We Do". Contributing songwriters included Robert Ellis Orrall, Leslie Satcher, Trey Bruce, Stegall, and Randall. Tom Roland of The Tennessean found the album's first half stronger than its second half, praising the collaborative songs and Morgan's vocal delivery on "Strong Enough to Cry", but criticizing the Adams cover. BNA issued a second compilation, To Get to You: Greatest Hits Collection, in 2000. Included on the album, in addition to several more of her hit singles, were covers of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and Tammy Wynette's "Another Lonely Song". Morgan then ended her contract with BNA at the time of the album's release, with The Tennessean columnist Brad Schmitt noting at the time that the departure from her label was amicable, and was likely spurred by declining sales and creative differences.

2000s and 2010s Morgan collaborated with Sammy Kershaw on the 1999 single "Maybe Not Tonight" and the duets album I Finally Found Someone; the two were also married from 2001 to 2007. In 2001, RCA Nashville (of which BNA was a division at the time) signed both Morgan and Kershaw, who had just ended his tenure with Mercury, to a one-album deal. This deal included the collaborative album I Finally Found Someone, featuring six duets and three solo songs from each artist. Morgan's manager noted at the time that RCA's decision to re-sign her after having previously dropped her from the BNA division was "unusual". The album's title track was originally recorded by Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams for the former's 1996 movie The Mirror Has Two Faces, and Morgan said that she had wanted to record the song after having seen the movie. One single, the duet "He Drinks Tequila", became Morgan's last top 40 entry on Hot Country Songs that year. Nash was less positive, calling the album "oddly reminiscent of the worst of '80s radio."

Morgan signed to Image Entertainment in 2002. Her first project for the label was The Color of Roses, a two-disc compilation featuring live performances of both her hit singles and pop standards accompanied by the Belmont University School of Music Orchestra, The second disc included two studio recordings (the title track and a rendition of Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night") and a 43-minute interview. Image also released the studio album Show Me How in 2004.

Morgan's eleventh album A Moment in Time was released on October 27, 2009, on the Stroudavarious label. It features fourteen covers of traditional country songs, and duets with Tracy Lawrence and The Mavericks' lead singer Raul Malo. Thom Jurek of AllMusic praised the album's production and song choices, writing that "she is jaw-droppingly sincere, and her interpretations of these songs make them her own because of their originality, without sacrificing reverence for the standard versions. " In 2010, Morgan released another studio album called I Walk Alone. It included twelve songs that she co-wrote and co-produced, and she described it as occupying "a particularly introspective and vulnerable place in her life". This was followed in 2014 by Dos Divas, a collaboration album with Pam Tillis. Morgan released a further solo album in 2016, Letting Go...Slow, and a second duets album with Tillis in 2017, Come See Me and Come Lonely. Her next studio album was released by the Cleopatra label in 2024 titled Dead Girl Walking.

Musical style and influences Morgan's style is defined by her singing voice, and the combination of ballads and uptempo material present in her discography. Robert K. Oermann of The Tennessean described her as "the blonde with the torchy delivery", Nash contrasted her with Tammy Wynette, writing of her first greatest-hits album that it was "a reminder that Morgan is capable of delivering the kind of feisty songwriting that harkens back to Wynette’s halcyon days in the '70s." Morgan also felt that the comparisons to Wynette in her singing style and song choices were helpful in making her music appeal to female fans. James Manheim of AllMusic said of her songs' themes that they displayed a "sense of humor and play to her usual strengths in the genres of the breakup ballad and everywoman barroom encounter song." The second was Frank Sinatra's Duets II, on which she sang a medley of James Ingram and Patti Austin's "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" and Sinatra's "My Funny Valentine". Lastly, she contributed to Keith Whitley: A Tribute Album, which dubbed her voice with Whitley's on the duet "I Just Want You". The Beach Boys' 1996 album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, a collaborative album with several country music artists, featured her on a rendition of "Don't Worry Baby". Also in 1996, she was one of many artists to contribute to "Hope: Country Music's Quest for a Cure", a multi-artist charity single sponsored by the T. J. Martell Foundation to promote leukemia research. This song charted on Hot Country Songs for four weeks in mid-1996.

Personal life

Morgan is also known for her turbulent personal life. In a July 2004 televised interview on Larry King Live, she stated, "Drama is something that lets you know you're still alive." Morgan is a Catholic.

Morgan's first husband was Ron Gaddis, a musician in George Jones' road band, to whom she was married from 1979 to 1981. The two had one daughter, Morgan Anastasia Gaddis. Her second marriage was to country music singer Keith Whitley, which lasted from 1986 until Whitley's death from alcohol poisoning in 1989. From 1994 to 1996, Morgan was in a relationship with politician Fred Thompson. Morgan observed that their relationship had increased her personal interest in politics but had also caused her to "stop and think about the political implications of everything before I uttered a word in public." She also observed that she wished to marry Thompson but thought that marrying a politician would create personal conflicts between the two of them.

Morgan married country singer Jon Randall in 1996, and a year later, she published an autobiography, Forever Yours, Faithfully: My Love Story. In 1998, tabloids published allegations that Morgan had been spotted in the back of a limousine with Bill Clinton, then the President of the United States, but Morgan dismissed the claims as "fabricated". In 2008, Morgan filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, with an estimated $1 to $10 million in debts. She would later state that her bankruptcy was because she "didn't watch [her] own money" or audit her accountants. On September 15, 2010, she married her sixth husband, Tennessee business owner Randy White.

Discography

1989: Leave the Light On 1991: Something in Red 1992: Watch Me 1993: Merry Christmas from London 1994: War Paint 1996: Greater Need 1997: Shakin' Things Up 1998: Secret Love 1999: My Heart 2004: Show Me How 2008: I Walk Alone 2009: A Moment in Time 2013: Dos Divas (with Pam Tillis) 2016: Letting Go...Slow 2017: Come See Me and Come Lonely (with Pam Tillis) 2024: Dead Girl Walking

Awards and nominations Grammy Awards 1990 "'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose" (with Keith Whitley) Best Country Collaboration with Vocals

1993 "Something in Red" Best Female Country Vocal Performance 1996 "Hope: Country Music's Quest for a Cure" (with various artists) Best Country Collaboration with Vocals Academy of Country Music Awards 1984 Lorrie Morgan Top New Female Vocalist

"Out of Your Shoes" Song of the Year

1992

"Something in Red" Song of the Year 1994 Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles Album of the Year 1997 Jon Randall and Lorrie Morgan Top Vocal Duet TNN/Music City News Country Awards

Star of Tomorrow Female Artist of the Year "Dear Me" Video of the Year

"'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose" Single of the Year Lorrie Morgan and Keith Whitley Vocal Collaboration of the Year

1992 1993

Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles Album of the Year "What Part of No" Single of the Year 1995

1996

Lorrie Morgan and Jon Randall Vocal Collaboration of the Year 1998 Lorrie Morgan Female Artist of the Year Country Music Association Awards 1989 "Dear Me" Video of the Year

Horizon Award Female Vocalist of the Year "'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose" (with Keith Whitley) Vocal Event of the Year 1991 Lorrie Morgan Female Vocalist of the Year 1994 Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles Album of the Year