The Salvation of Jenny Morris

Rip It Up, Issue 219, 1 November 1995, Page 10

The Salvation of Jenny Morris

Fbr the first time in two years, Sydney based ex-pat Jenny Morris was back in New Zealand recently, for the unusual task of performing the national anthem and a half hour set of songs at a Ranfurly Shield rugby match. “I’m not a big rugby fan but I love coming home,” she says. “I think of New Zealand as being reality. It’s like a litmus test for the rest of the world. There’s something about kiwis and New Zealand you don’t get anywhere else. I don’t know what it is, but it involves having a certain amount of honesty and no-bullshit on every level, creative, political...” Morris was also in the country promoting her new album, Salvation Jane. Apart from the compilation album, The Story So Far, released in 1993, it is her first album in four years. “I took time off to have a baby, and anyway, I don’t feel duty bound to churn out an album every year. I believe in putting out an album when I’ve got a good bunch of songs together.” Much of Morris’ song writing is done on acoustic guitar, and when recording the album, a main aim was to try and keep the songs as warm and stripped back as possible. With the help of a number of producers, especially the Electric Hippies, the album was recorded on analogue, not digital equipment, “to try and keep the human side”. The album also includes songs by artists

other than Morris, including Billy Bragg, Rick Nowles and Andrew Farris from INXS.

“I’m not precious about songs,” she says. “I do songs I like. I don’t care who writes them, me or somebody else.” _ . The album’s title track, ‘Salvation Jane', was written by long-time Morris collaborator Andrew Farris. So, who’s Jane? "Salvation Jane is another name for Patterson’s Curse, which is a weed that grows in Australia. It has these amazing purple flowers which grow for acres. Farmers hate them and Andrew is a farmer, so maybe that’s where he got it from.” While she isn’t in the studio or on stage, Morris spends a lot of time supporting campaigns run by organisations like Greenpeace and World Vision. She says her social conscience is something she has inherited from her environmentally aware parents. “Basically, if I can use my public profile to help something I believe needs help, I’ll do it.” So, will we see Jenny Morris shifting back to New Zealand for good one day, to home town Hamilton perhaps? “I might skip Hamilton," she says. “I’d like to come back to New Zealand one day, but it would have to be to somewhere near the sea. Maybe the Bay of Islands.”

DOMINIC WAGHORN