While he's best known for shredding away with Lamb of God, Mark Morton is putting aside thrash and death metal for a minute to showcase his Southern rock and blues chops, as is apparent in his latest solo record, Without The Pain.
While many may not associate Morton with these genres due to his standing in metal, they're well within his wheelhouse. “I was probably tuned into this kind of music even before heavy metal," he tells Guitarist.
“Lamb of God is a big band. It’s well known. I’m certainly most known for that work, and that’s awesome. I’m grateful for that and I still love doing it, but this stuff has always been there for me.”
Alongside collaborations with Jason Isbell and Tyler Bryant on the new record, a fast-rising name appears in the credits, and it's none other than Grace Bowers, who cut her teeth establishing herself in the blues before taking a deep dive into various different genres.
“She’s phenomenal," Morton gushes. “She came in and we cut that [the song Dust] together, but the slide stuff is me and the non-slide is her. We were on stools next to each other, going back and forth on the parts in front of the board. That was the first time we’d met, but we’d followed each other on Instagram, liking each other’s posts and saying, ‘Hey,’ that kind of thing.
“She was in town and I had a spot on the session, and we were filling out leads, so I was like, ‘Do you want to jam on this thing with me?’ She was like, ‘Hell, yeah, I’ll be there!’ She showed up and just ripped, man. She brought that cool early ’60s SG she was playing for a while. I think she leaves it at home now, probably smartly, because she’s touring so much. But watching Grace just blow up in front of the world and become a superstar has been super fun.”
As Morton notes, saying that Bowers is booked and busy is an understatement. This year alone, the wunderkind lent her guitar chops to Coldplay's Chris Martin at the 67th Grammy Awards and performed a Beatles classic alongside Peter Frampton and Trey Anastasio.
For more from Mark Morton, plus new interviews with Molly Tuttle and Skunk Baxter, pick up issue 527 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.
