Guaranteed to knock ’em dead: The marvelous voice of Lorrie Morgan

Misconceptions, laughter, anxiety, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bobbie Gentry, the Beach Boys, “What Part of No,” and “Something in Red” dominate an exclusive interview with nineties country song stylist Lorrie Morgan. Meanwhile, a film noir vibe finds the movie star-worthy platinum blonde brandishing a sparkly acoustic guitar onstage at the 10th Annual Mission Possible Turkey Fry, hosted by Tracy Lawrence at the Nashville Rescue Mission, on November 24, 2015. Morgan once asked her famous father, Grand Ole Opry member George Morgan, if he had beaten stage fright. “I get nervous every time before I go on,” the elder Morgan revealed. “If you ever lose that nervousness, you’re gonna lose your lust for what you’re doing.” Photography by Katie Kauss / Conway Entertainment Group

Elegant alto Lorrie Morgan dropped debut album Leave the Light On at the turn of the 1990s, ushering in contemporary country alongside fellow new kids on the block Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Clint Black. RCA Nashville’s gamble was perceptive — five Top 20 C&W singles were lifted from the record including the number one “Five Minutes” and the near-chart-topper “Out of Your Shoes.” Sixteen further hits kept the youngest person to ever join the Grand Ole Opry in the headlines over the ensuing decade. Even late night titan Johnny Carson told a flabbergasted Morgan, “You sing real well…you’ve got a marvelous quality in your voice.”

Not all headlines were encouraging. Veteran country music chronicler-Elvis Presley biographer Alanna Nash uncovered Morgan’s predicament. She was “the Tammy Wynette of the ’90s, both for the throaty sob in her songs of failed romance and for her soap opera-like life.” Eddy Arnold-inspired Opry crooner George Morgan succumbing to a heart attack 10 days after his daughter’s 16th birthday, widowed by the alcoholic demise of neotraditionalist Keith “Miami, My Amy” Whitley, four divorces, and bankruptcy were all calamitous episodes that Morgan survived. Unenthusiastic about playing music biz politics, Come See Me and Come Lonely, Morgan’s encore collaboration with Pam Tillis, dropped in 2017 without the…