The name of Drunken Prayer describes the crossbreed mix of the band's sound-- snarly as a stevedore, true as roadside wildflowers. The sound is that of Morgan Christopher Geer of Asheville, NC. Sometime in 2006 at a fish market in tiny Sebastopol, CA, Geer found himself in a conversation with one of his heroes, Tom Waits, about life and its music. The talk moved Geer to unleash his trademark sound and lyrics where sin and redemption bleed into each other--the honest place where pool hall gloom and tent revival glory keep one another bona fide. Thus it came to pass that in a fish market between Tom Waits and a bin of dead trout, Drunken Prayer came to life.
What sets Drunken Prayer apart from other neo-Americana artists may be that DP is not trying to be neo or Americana, not trying to do anything but let out a howl formed by life and the history of music. Not representing any one style of music--not representing at all, just being. Just making music out of the reservoirs left by living and listening to humanity. Drunken Prayer makes an honest tune, an unironic narrative of the harsh and beautiful harmonies and discords every human faces: a kind of holy blues. There is a unique genuineness here born of pure inspiration.
Within the first few months of forming, Drunken Prayer was asked to open for Southern Culture on the Skids at the legendary Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR. Drunken Prayer is waiting in the wings of the national stage, sharing club and festival dates with Victoria Williams, The Handsome Family, Tim Easton, The Reigning Sound and Freakwater. DP gigs regularly throughout the NW, routinely tours the West Coast and often makes it cross-country.
A Drunken Prayer concert is familiar territory, yet it's like nothing you've ever heard.
Morgan Geer was born a melancholy boy to a New Orleans folk singer and a California farmer. A tall man with dark, heartbreaker looks, he has a compelling stage presence. His entertaining wit and charismatic delivery à la Warren Zevon come easy, in a swagger of whispers, shouts and sneers. He's a showman--"a barking ringleader with chops between Tom Waits and the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes" (Willamette Week, Portland, OR).
Geer wrote and arranged many of Drunken Prayer's first compositions while wood-shedding on a farm in Sonoma County, California, before moving to Portland, OR. His songs are a hefty mix of blues, country and alternative, in traditional arrangements, often violently dynamic and always with "an almost inculpable sincerity" (Mountain Xpress, Asheville, NC). His big-shoulders vocals and swampy guitar create a nicely creepy backdrop for rakish, playful stories of eternal themes.
Morgan's previous band, The Unholy Trio of Asheville, NC, also featured members of The Reigning Sound and Freakwater. On their 5th Year Anniversary compilation Bloodshot Records featured the Trio's devilish version of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise".
Though Drunken Prayer is often Morgan Geer performing solo or with light accompaniment, the bigger group has at different times boasted an impressive roster of members from The Breeders, She & Him, The Wipers, Beck, Eels, and the backing bands of John Lee Hooker and Elliot Smith.
Drunken Prayer released their first full length CD (self titled) in 2007, one live EP (Drunken Prayer…with Sam Henry), a Christmas 7" featuring The Krektones and their new full length CD, "Into The Missionfield" is being released in February 2012 on Fluff & Gravy Records.
