walking upstream…
James Vincent McMorrow
photo: p_a_h (flickr) · cc by 2.0 ↗James Vincent McMorrow
Dublin-born James Vincent McMorrow started out as a teenage drummer drawn to harsh post-hardcore before picking up a guitar at 19 and pivoting to falsetto-led acoustic folk, breaking through with 2010's "Early in the Morning." He later pushed the sound toward Rhodes-piano-soaked, R&B-inflected folk on "Post Tropical" (2014) and "We Move" (2016), a soul-folk hybrid that made him a key reference point for the acoustic-soul wave that followed.
the sound in question
2013
CavalierJames Vincent McMorrow
walk the tributaries ↓
Donny Hathaway1970s · Soul / R&B / Gospel
McMorrow picked up a guitar at 19 after hearing Donny Hathaway's "I Love You More Than You Will Ever Know" — the moment that pulled him out of teenage hardcore drumming and into acoustic songwriting. He's since said "Donny was a catalyst for me wanting to sing," and that soul-steeped, aching phrasing became the backbone of his own falsetto delivery.
listen: upstream & heresource: AllMusic biography — teenage drumming/At the Drive-In, Refused, Glassjaw; picked up guitar at 19 after hearing Donny Hathaway ↗
1973
I Love You More Than You'll Ever KnowDonny Hathaway
2010
If I Had a BoatJames Vincent McMorrow
listen forListen for the way McMorrow lets a simple vocal phrase hang and bend on "If I Had a Boat," the same unhurried soul phrasing that first drew him to Hathaway's original.
D'Angelo2000s · Neo-Soul / R&B / Funk
McMorrow has said that while making "Post Tropical" he'd listen to Donny Hathaway or D'Angelo records and, rather than the sounds themselves, think about "what they were thinking about when they made those records" — the warm, woozy electric-piano texture and loose neo-soul groove of D'Angelo's records pulled McMorrow's sound away from pure folk.
listen: upstream & heresource: OnMilwaukee interview — McMorrow on listening to Donny Hathaway and D'Angelo records while making Post Tropical ↗
2000
Untitled (How Does It Feel)D'Angelo
2016
Get LowJames Vincent McMorrow
listen forListen for the warm, slightly behind-the-beat Rhodes-style chords under "Get Low," the same neo-soul pocket D'Angelo built "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" around.
At the Drive-In1990s–2000s · Post-hardcore / Emo / Post-punk
Before he picked up a guitar, McMorrow began his musical life as a teenage drummer drawn to the harsh, post-hardcore sounds of At the Drive-In (grouped with Refused and Glassjaw in his early bio). This is a broader stylistic-origin claim rather than a specific sonic technique carried forward, but the propulsive, percussion-forward drive of his later folk-soul records plausibly traces back to that rhythmic upbringing.
listen: upstream & heresource: AllMusic biography — teenage drumming/At the Drive-In, Refused, Glassjaw; picked up guitar at 19 after hearing Donny Hathaway ↗
2000
One Armed ScissorAt the Drive-In
2016
Rising WaterJames Vincent McMorrow
listen forListen for the tumbling, insistent percussion pushing "Rising Water" forward — a very different genre from At the Drive-In's "One Armed Scissor," but a similarly restless rhythmic urgency underneath.