Cary Morin’s upcoming release is ‘Innocent Allies‘ – which is out January 26th, it’s an album Morin explains, that was “inspired by the famous Western painter Charles M. Russell and my life in Great Falls, Montana, where Charlie lived and worked.” The award-winning finger-style guitarist and songwriter has a long history with the paintings, as he explains “My father was an Assiniboine tribal member from Wolf Point, Montana, and my mother from The Crow Tribe in Lodge Grass, Montana. Surrounded by music and art as a child, I was also surrounded by my father’s and grandfather, Robert Yellowtail’s, favourite artist and local hero, Charles Marion Russell. His work was everywhere; in our house, in businesses, on the walls of our families’ homes, and at the state capital.”
The song was inspired by a painting of the same name, with Morin saying that “you can see Charlie’s treatment of the sky, accented by the remaining snow on the ground, there’s some commotion around the hunters’ return. The landscape is a calm but cold Montana winter day, with the familiar bare Cottonwood trees and a cloudy sky. The painting itself suggests the respect given to an elder tribal member offering the elder the opportunity to eat first before the others. The story in the song speaks to things the hunters encountered on their hunt, including a man who was mourning the loss of his son. One could assume that it was in battle that he died. The hunters could hear the man singing on a hilltop in the distance and decided to leave him to his mourning.”
