Interview with Whitey Morgan playing at Peachtree Tavern on Thursday, March 14th

[ 0 ] March 13, 2013 | shelbylum +

For those of us who were born and bred below the Mason Dixon line, Country music seems to be our genre, something that we hold onto, something distinctly Southern.

Whitey Morgan & the 78′s are looking to change that stereotype.

Hailing from Flint, Michigan, the band is a different kind of Country band (although Morgan would rather not label the band).

He takes his influences from his family who moved up from the South. “My family is from the South and that’s what I do and where I came from,” Morgan said. “Well who the hell do you think built all those cars? It’s all those southern transplants up here.”

Whitey Morgan & the 78′s are looking to make a name for country music in the North. The band sings about driving, beers, and every other country staple within Southern music.

“It sounds like every great dive bar jukebox sound,” Morgan said.

He said he is not a Country band, he is not an outlaw band, but a Honkey-Tonk to old school Blues, to traditional Country music.

The band’s eclectic style transcends genres. “I’ve gotten so sick of the labels over the years,” Morgan said.

> His performance at Peachtree Tavern will not be his first visit to Georgia, but that doesn’t mean the band’s performance is going to be a cookie cutter concert.

Morgan said he likes to keep his concerts from seeming like an assembly line, and will sit at the bar before the show and drink a few beers before it is time for him to take the stage.

“I am there for a purpose. (The audience and I) are there together. It’s not just a one-sided thing,” Morgan said. “I always hated going to show and feeling like those guys never connected with the audience.”

The best part of Whitey Morgan & the 78′s music: the honesty. Their music is something crowds everywhere can relate with. It is not some overdone spectacle, and the band keeps it old school with their musical style.

“I’m not the greatest musician. I don’t know a lot, but I know what I’ve been doing for the last 15 years,” he said. “It may not be the most spectacular musically, but it works.”

Whitey Morgan & the 78′s will be playing at Peachtree Tavern on Thursday, March 14th.