L.A. music promoter waves flag for outlaw country

12/07/2005 7:04 PM, Reuters
Chris Morris

There have been times when Shilah Morrow of Sin City Marketing has been maddened by her nickname "Mama Shi," for actual mothers have to change diapers and do other messy everyday chores. But Morrow is very much a maternal figure for Los Angeles' fertile country-rock underground.

On Wednesday night, Morrow's monthly country jam Sweethearts of the Rodeo celebrated its fifth anniversary at Molly Malone's in L.A's Miracle Mile District. She recently launched a second promotion, the Sin City Social Club, the third Friday of the month at the Mint on Pico Boulevard; she books the other Friday nights at that club.

With her longtime friend Polly Parsons, daughter of the late L.A. country-rock icon Gram Parsons, Morrow promoted star-studded Parsons tributes in London (in 2003) and Los Angeles (last year); the latter gig featured Keith Richards, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle.

While others have mounted long-running monthly country shows in L.A., no one has waved the flag for outlaw L.A. country quite as energetically as Morrow.

"You've got to have some rock stars and some attitude and push (the music) over the line, unless you're going to appeal just to men over 40 who live with their parents," she says.

Her enthusiasm for the music dates back to her days in sales at Atlantic Records, when she worked with the Missouri roots band the Bottle Rockets. "I would spend a lot of time with them on the road," she says. "The Palomino (in North Hollywood) had just shut down, and there wasn't a big scene here. I came back (to L.A.) and was very into it."

In May 2000, Sweethearts of the Rodeo was launched as a monthly club night at Goldfinger's in Hollywood by country fans Lisa Jenkins and Piper Ferguson. "Piper had too much on her plate, and I begged Lisa to keep it," Morrow recalls.

Originally a DJ-based event, Sweethearts evolved into a "no case" (as opposed to a showcase) featuring a house band and rotating guests. "I told Lisa it'd be more fun to put together a house band, and I knew some guys who could pull it off," Morrow says. She drafted singer Bryson Jones, whom she knew from his days as a Palomino employee, and seasoned bassist-producer Dusty Wakeman as the key players, and they remain part of the group known as the Sin City All Stars.

Morrow's company takes its name from a Gram Parsons song, and she has known Polly Parsons for decades: "We first met when we were 4 years old. My mom knew her dad and used to take me to Flying Burrito Brothers shows." After the pair attended Gramfest, the annual desert Parsons homage, Morrow remembers, "Polly went, 'Why can't we do something on a bigger scale?"'

With the Return to Sin City tribute concerts behind her, Morrow is focusing on her club promotions and a regular promotional CD highlighting major label, indie and unsigned country-rock acts. The compilations have been distributed by CMT.com and as premiums for No Depression magazine.

As Morrow sees it, the idea is to stoke the country flame with an audience beyond traditional Americana listeners.

"I don't like the word Americana," she says, "because I think it's been painted into a corner. It's important to bust out of that corner, that box."

(Chris Morris hosts "Watusi Rodeo" on Indie 103.1 (http://www.indie1031.fm) in Los Angeles from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays.)

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter