Maybe it took a minute for Gurf Morlix to embrace his songwriting after a career long defined as a local guitar slinger and producer, but 10 albums in, he’s carved out his own distinctive voice as a composer. His remains a voice of graceless epiphanies, raw and rough-hewn, experienced. Yet there’s wisdom and softness in the grit, Impossible Blue lock-staring mortality as a gift rather than a threat. “Crawling out of primordial ooze, learning how to sing the blues,” he growls on the defiant “My Heart Keeps Poundin’,” his licks popping cathartic. Opener “Turpentine” slices a low groove of bad love, but the heart of the LP beats against loss in “I Saw You” and the closing ode to late drummer Michael Bannister, “Backbeat of the Dispossessed.”

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This article appears in March 22 • 2019.

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Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.