Check out the latest single from Very Old Morris, the solo project of San Antonio-based singer-songwriter Jerid Reed Morris, who is backed by an excellent band featuring members of Rose Windows, with additional jangle for this song from Gin Blossoms. That’s No Way To Act is driven forward by pulsing drums from Pat Schowe, over which the guitars are bright and loud; the sound of summer. An outstanding guitar solo rises out of the melody, exhilarating and full of dynamic energy. Morris’s tuneful vocals spill out in a stream of thoughts about the end of the narrator’s relationship and seeing his ex-partner with someone new: “She said, All you ever are is critical She knows that’s a lie, I’m sometimes cynical.” Throughout, the narrator ridicules the new man, comparing him unfavourably with himself, while actually showing up his flaws and briefly and quietly admitting that it was all his fault.
Singer-songwriter Jerid Reed Morris explains: “When we were making That’s No Way To Act, the goal was to punch in and out with a real tight, real quick little pop song. It needed to be a little funny, a little wry, but also have a little moment of clarity and sincerity from its otherwise (very) cynical narrator. It needed to touch something real, and it does that in the first chorus breakdown: He can pick his ex’s new man apart all he wants, but in the end he knows it was all his fault. For her part, she’s only reaffirming (what was probably) her decision to leave him in the first place. He sees only the superficial, none of the detail of what she likely needed from him–but he can certainly see the word ASSHOLE keyed on the side of his Isuzu Rodeo. We subtracted the steel and fiddle that warms the rest of the record–kind of a Brooks & Dunn move–and substituted a bunch of Gin Blossoms guitars slathered in chorus and jingle-jangle. And if you’re gonna go full GB you gotta throw that tambourine around. The result is hopefully what it set out to be–one part irreverent pop song, one part cautionary tale, baby.”
In raw-looking footage, the video shows a group of women pushing Morris’s truck through the streets. Band member and video director Nils Petersen says:
“The video is a metaphorical embellishment on the absurdity of emotional labor a woman goes through when dating a modern-day man-child. The amount of effort a woman puts into a relationship is juxtaposed with boys being boys – playing with their toys. Ultimately, men can drive away seemingly unfazed, not realising the relationship has changed them for the better, while women are left to figure out how to continue.”
The single is taken from the forthcoming album Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Shoop, which will be available on 2nd October 2026. The album was written as a love letter to ’90s radio country, but delivered through an alt-country lens. The album features covers of Iron & Wine and Calexico’s Sixteen, Maybe Less as a haunted his-and-hers duet, and a banjo-driven version of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Thirty-Three. These are joined by eight original indie-country songs that subvert formulas but remain full of melody. Enjoy.
