As much as Tom Morello enjoyed his stintwith Audioslave, the post-Rage Against the Machine band he founded with ChrisCornell, Cornell’s scorching, introspective arena-rock left Morello hungry forthe activism of his previous band. Since Cornell wasn’t providing him with thepolitical material he craved, Morello began writing his own.
Though styled after Woody Guthrie’sacoustic folk, the staid songs that Morello began to churn out with increasingspeed were every bit as loaded as Rage’s thrashing screeds. But he knew hecouldn’t perform them live under his own name without misleading concertgoers,who would understandably expect a rock show from the notoriously heavyguitarist.
He needed an alias.
“I had to create a firewall between myelectric guitar heroism and this new endeavor I was branching out into,”Morello explains. “I wanted to have time for this project to grow without beingexpected to play a Rage and Audioslave greatest-hits set.”
So Morello came up with a pseudonym, onethat doubled as an alter ego: The Nightwatchman, a populist rebel withanti-government leanings. Save for the occasional, perceptive audience memberwho’d recognize the man on stage, Morello played his first acoustic shows inrelative anonymity. Morello’s friend, guru producer Rick Rubin, had suggestedthe idea as a way to help the guitarist build confidence in his untestedsinging.
“The first thing I did after I wrotethese songs was go over to Rick’s house and ask him, ‘Can I sing?’” Morellorecalls. “And he said, ‘You sing fine, but you need experience. You haveexperience as a guitar player, but not as a singer. Go out and play a hundredshows.’ So I did. I went out and I played every possible opportunity. On nightsoff between Audioslave arena dates, I’d go to local coffeehouses andcountry-and-western bars and sign up and play songs.
“At first, performing these songs was adaunting task, but it got to the point where now I’m absolutely fearless aboutit,” Morello continues. “I’ve sat there with a nylon-string acoustic guitar infront of hundreds of thousands of people at the immigrant rallies here in theUnited States, or the G-8 protests in Germany, where I was playing my showwhile there was literally a tear-gas police riot going on, or the Big Day Outfestival in Australia in front of five- to ten-thousand people a day, where thecompetition on the bill was heavy metal bands. Really, there’s no format thatcan make me blink now.”
Morello has become so self-assured in hisnew role as singer-songwriter that he attached his birth name to his latestNightwatchman album, The Fabled Cityafollow-up to his 2007 debut, One ManRevolution, a disc that earned more than a few comparisons to acousticBruce Springsteen. Like his debut, OneMan Revolution reveals Morello to be a surprisingly disciplined songwriter,a surprisingly gripping singer andunsurprisinglya livid critic of the Bushadministration. Though its most dire songs detail a barren, post-Katrina NewOrleans, the bleak mood is lifted frequently by rousing, grab-a-pintsing-alongs in the spirit of The Pogues. Morello’s authoritative electricguitar, boldly absent from the first Nightwatchman album, even makes a coupleof cameos.
“It’s no accident that this new album isunder my own name as well as The Nightwatchman,” Morello says. “I felt muchmore comfortable embracing all sides of my playing, from the guitar soloing, tothe riff writing, to the acoustic singer/songwriting. That’s why my latest touris going to be half acoustic, half electric; I’m bringing out a backing bandcalled the Freedom Fighter Orchestra. The show’s template is half Dylan, halfHendrix.”
TomMorello/The Nightwatchman headlines an 8 p.m. concert at the Turner HallBallroom on Wednesday, Nov. 12, supported by Ike Reilly and Boots Riley.
