MORTON SHAMEN "Playing With Confidence"

by jenny heying

Aquastar is the kind of club you’d expect to see some great musicians. It has plenty of stage room, ample dance floor and enough room to drive a tank through. I ventured in to catch Morton Shamen who debuted in Second Life® as the bass player for a rock trio with Kiplan Carlyle.

With his sidekick acoustic guitar Morton opened slowly with “I’m On Fire”, brilliantly done, but far too short. Equally brilliant with “Old Man”, Morton showed that he can sing. He wasn’t happy with it and stopped then continued half way through. Perfectionist? Hmmm.

With an AV that reminds me of a dark haired John Lennon, he plays his guitar wonderfully and you can tell he knows what he’s doing with it. More than just simple strumming along, his guitar is a more than adequate accompaniment.


Morton crosses the genre lines from rock to country and with Keith Urban’s “Memories Of Us”, he made country lovable. His voice is soothing and a little raspy when he gets carried away, but nonetheless he’s a pleasure to listen to. Digging down deeper, his voice took on “Honeybee” and you know what his voice won. The song suits Morton and it was a great opportunity to show his prowess on his axe. The two were meant for this song.

His raspy bluesy voice came to the forefront on “Cumbersome”. It’s likeable and fits. You get the feeling you’re listening to a blues artist albeit to a slighter different fare. You’re not sure whether his guitar or voice is doing the driving but not to worry, you know you’re going to get there.

He tends to talk a lot between songs which is okay as at least it shows he’s paying attention to what’s happening around him. You know he’s performing without a set schedule but that just adds to the carefree attitude he exudes. He’s a storyteller which fits what a singer is supposed to be.

And if everything I’ve said so far hasn’t impressed you, Morton is also a song writer and a pretty damn good one at that. That was evident on “It Could Be True” (not sure if that’s what it is called) and “Highway of Love”. While he may be a great performer, he does have talent as a writer and both songs are worthy of airplay. He claims to have written more than 300 songs some of which are on his MySpace site.

It’s refreshing to see someone not only talented but playing with confidence as Morton does. He looks and sounds comfortable on stage and that just makes you feel comfortable too. Covers of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen followed with Morton sounding better with each note.

It’s hard to pinpoint what I liked the most about Morton Shamen. He’s a good singer, a great guitar player and a talented songwriter. Hmm. Well maybe that’s it. It’s the combination of those three things that make him likeable.

Also on his set list this night were “You Don’t Know How It Feels”, “You Complete Me” (original), “Blue On Black”, “Copperhead Road”, “Southern Accents”, “I Don’t Want To Talk About It”, “Baby You Can Sleep While I Drive”, “Lose Again”, and “Square One”. He even did an encore with "Fountain Of Sorrow" and "Holding Her Loving You".

Judging by his schedule, the Alabama born performer is quite busy in Second Life®. And judging by his overrun on his time, he wants to be busy. He should be for quite some time.