Matt Morris 'Giddy' Over Working With Patty Griffin

A few weeks back, we caught up with emerging singer-songwriter Matt Morris regarding his widely-acclaimed performance of 'Hallelujah' with Justin Timberlake on the 'Hope for Haiti' benefit special. But that wasn't the only recent collaboration of that he's been stoked on. On his debut album, 'When Everything Breaks Open,' Morris had the opportunity to collaborate with a hero of his, country traditionalist Patty Griffin.

"She's a musical force in a small little body," Morris tells Spinner. "Working with her was dreamlike. It was not anything I'd expected." The two met via Morris's producer, Charlie Sexton, who simply called her up and asked her to come down to the studio. Sexton had her in mind specifically for the song 'Bloodline,' a slow folk tune that highlights Morris's falsetto tendencies with Griffin joining in on the second verse and singing through the end.

"She came down and bless her heart, I'd forgotten to give her a lyric sheet," Morris recalls. "She'd came down and had handwritten the lyrics. That was so special to me. I really had to curb the giddiness."

As far as the actual song goes, 'Bloodline' is one of Morris' heavier tunes, drawing on themes of religion and finding purpose, and it came to him while he was on a walk. "The word seemed to mean more than it ever had and I didn't know why, so I held on to that," he says. "I went home, and within about a half hour, the song was finished. The narrative is much more complicated. I find that songs like this are inspired by aspects of my life but they're also inspired by other people's lives that I'm in close proximity to."

'When Everything Breaks Open' is out now on Tennman Records.