With a career spanning rock-n-roll haunts, smoky jazz clubs, packed arenas, and music festivals, Chrissy Morgan’s serene and hardy voice can cut blazingly through or blend harmoniously with any genre of any scale. Her love of music began by singing along with her family on roadtrips and in the living room in suburban New Jersey listening to an album from her family’s extensive record collection. Participating in every choir and musical theatre production throughout her public education (Ms. Evans, Ms. Messenger, Ms. Randazzo, Mr. Diehl, Ms. Reich) only came natural and solidified the seeds to an eventual career.
Moving to Michigan, home of techno, mo-town, blaring guitar rock, gospel, as well jazz and blues legends, only fed the fire of her musical soul. Continuing to participate in the local and the community college musical theatre programs was the natural next step until joining as the front woman for the original band Bricktown Station. With BTS she felt comfortable belting it out and began to develop her songwriting and studio experience creating 2 albums with the band; HOME, and ARE WE THERE YET?.
Wanting to explore other vocal opportunities, Morgan was always searching for ways to showcase her voice. This included becoming the unofficial National Anthem singer for the Detroit Derby Girls , joining the burlesque troupe, Hell’s Belle’s, and busking at the Eastern Market. Actively manifesting backing vocal opportunities, Morgan started singing alongside career musicians, Paul Miles and Kat Orlando whom had provided her with a true education of the music industry and how to make it as a profession.
Working as a backing vocalist in the Detroit metro area opened the door to a whirlwind of prospects to perform, record, and tour amongst some of the greatest musicians in the world. Highlights from this time would be going on tour with The Sights at the South by Southwest music festival, recording alongside THE Vandellas, opening up for the Stone Temple Pilots at The Detroit Grand Prix with Joe Jaber and The Last Divide, and joining the Algebra Mothers (A-Moms) for their record release at Jack White’s Third Man Record Store.
With enough experience under her belt, Chrissy began teaching vocals at the Detroit School of Rock and then moved on to private lessons at the Berkley Music Company as a vocal mentor. Missing the intimacy and consistency of a regular singing gig, Morgan began working as a duo alongside a bevy of joining musicians including Jarrod Champion, Bruce Farrell, Sandy Mulligan (her mom) and eventually, Susie Woodman who would alter the direction of her next musical endeavor.
Originally meeting Susie as part of the backing band for the pop artist, Sofi K, the two instantly connected. Their first paid gig, with limited rehearsal, was 4 hours on New Year’s Eve, performing their songbook collected of pop and jazz tunes that they both knew and loved. This connection had culmunated to what each of their expertise and enjoyment in the industry has led to. Chrissy Morgan & Susie Woodman performed at music festivals, furniture show rooms, movie theatre lobbies, and senior homes sharing the same energy and passion at each. They would occasionally add more members creating, Chrissy Morgan & her Fabulous Band, performing regularly at Detroit’s historic London Chophouse.
The friendship through a musical bond eventually sparked the next level of creativity which included adding original songs to the set. Once again each had shared tunes from their songbook (hand-penned), and combined 8 original songs to develop Simple Love Songs and introduce Chrissy Morgan as a solo recording artist. The album was nominated for a Detroit Music award and Chrissy Morgan performed a set of her original music as the opening act, alongside Susie Woodman, for multiple Grammy nominee, Boney James.
Prior to the pandemic, Chrissy survived breast cancer. While recovering from the trauma, her husband of 20 years survived a serious motor scooter accident. Throughout this time, Chrissy had kept working for her livelyhood, but was hitting a plateau of how much energy she had to withstand the demands as a professional musician under the circumstances. When the pandemic hit, the break was much needed, but cancelled most of the performances scheduled for that year. And while the hit was a shock, it opened the door to a different destiny. It was at this time that The Morgans had purchased a property in the beautiful bluegrass region of Kentucky, a place where they had vacationed often in the past.
Quite literally starting from scratch, Chrissy began her Kentucky journey building a home with her husband. Making occasional trips back to Michigan to record or perform and continuing vocal lessons through Zoom kept the music going. With the demands of the property outweighing the time needed to invest in a professional vocal career, Chrissy decided to rethink her next moves. More recently she has become a host on the YouTube series, History In Your Own Backyard, and has been cast as a background actress in multiple films including Dead Man’s Wire and The Leader.
While taking a step back from full-time singing, she has attended a few local open mic nights and continues to promote her album through social media. As Chrissy settles her roots in this new beautiful region, she’s frequently inspired to write more. She has co-written the song, Pendulum for the band Killer Diller as well as the song, Love, Peace and Joy, for the Louisville based indie TV series, Heights of Deception. Along with writing for others, she has continued to write, and accompany herself, with plans on creating her sophomore album, Gotta Do Something, in the works. Hoping to inspire more people to sing, Chrissy Morgan has recently released karaoke/ lyric videos for each of the songs from Simple Love Songs. Strengthened by a new found confidence, she is also preparing to release a set of Vocal Mentor videos on YouTube. Always singing, Chrissy Morgan has worked as a session vocalist in the region recording her vocals with Kentucky musicians, Dennis Jump and Jeremy Zeller.
At just over 50, some would say that a lifetime of singing has just begun… and if that’s the case Chrissy is looking forward to the next adventures found on the musical road of life.
“I am thankful, I am grateful for all that I’ve become. With a little bit of luck and little bit of destiny, and a whole lot of fun.”
(lyrics from Wake From The Night)
