Tamar Korn and Kyle Morgan sing a style of close harmony as tight-knit as it is freewheeling.  Their repertoire draws on country classics like The Carter Family and Patsy Cline, more modern folk from Leonard Cohen and The Staple Singers, and the original songs of Kyle himself.  As expressed by Tamar, "we share an idiomatic palate of country harmonies and such, but we’re always open to musical surprises which arise out of presence, resonance and the connection to our audience.”  Their debut LP, Darkening Green, will be out on Jalopy Records on August 15th.

"When Tamar Korn and Kyle Morgan blend their gorgeous voices, something very special, even magical, happens." '

- Wide Open Country

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New LP DARKENING GREEN out on Jalopy Records August 15th

“Sublime… transcendent” (Wall Street Journal) NYC vocal treasure Tamar Korn and “strong writing” (Under the Radar) Brooklyn singer-songwriter Kyle Morgan (aka Starcrossed Losers) have teamed up for Darkening Green, a superb album of acoustic duets, featuring songs by Leonard Cohen, the Carter Family, Gillan Welch and David Rawlings, Iris Dement, and Kyle Morgan himself.

Today, they shared the first single “Life’s Railway To Heaven”, a song that comes from the repertoires of Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Marty Stuart, Bill Monroe, and Merle Haggard.  It was one of the first songs that the duo sang together, immediately recognizing something special in their vocal blend.

“Even within that song, we're waxing and waning, and that's one of my favorite feelings, when you can really lock in harmonically, but then also kind of play against each other,” says Morgan. HEAR/SHARE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9iyjTLqa8

One of NYC’s unsung musical heroes for the past quarter-century and a Brooklyn Folk Fest favorite, the southern California-born Korn is known for singing early jazz and roots music.  NY Times has praised her “smartly mewling” singing.

Morgan grew up in an evangelical Christian church in central Pennsylvania.  Bandcamp Daily said, “Morgan’s acoustic folk songs are universally appealing” while Under the Radar opined, “Morgan is grounded in the tradition of acoustic singer/songwriters, but shows a penchant for particularly strong writing.” Morgan’s previous album, 2022’s Younger at Most Everything album came out via Team Love Records.

Morgan first moved to NYC because of The Jalopy Theatre, first experiencing the scene via the Brooklyn Folk Fest. “I’ve been a fan of Kyle's songwriting since I heard it,” says Korn, first inviting him to sit in at a show of hers at Sunny’s in Red Hook.”  She expressed it as “a beautiful feeling to harmonize together. We share an idiomatic palate of country harmonies and such, but we’re always open to musical surprises and all manner of sensibilities which can arise out of presence and connection to our audience.”

Take “Everything Is Free”.  It sounds both ancient and current, tackling the topics of concerts and of recording payment (or lack thereof) in the streaming era. When Kyle and Tamar asked mutual friend and label-mate Wyndham Baird to play and sing some three-part harmonies on the record, they started having sessions to work up material. Wyndham informally brought the Gillian Welch and David Rawlings song to the table and Kyle and Tamar loved him on lead so much they begged him to record it. It comes out as a single June 16.

One of Darkening Green’s highlights is “Anthem,” the apropos Leonard Cohen song that will serve as the third single July 15th. Introduced to Tamar by friend and collaborator Sean Cronin, who first shifted the meter from 3/4 to 4/4, “‘Anthem’ is a salve of a song. It’s a leaning in & letting go. We weren’t sure what we would have time for and it made sense that this was our last song of the two-day session. Wyndham had left and so it was just Kyle, Jared (Engel on bass), and I just kind of shaking it all out,” recalls Tamar.

Of the song, which captures the current historical moment, Kyle adds “it always feels appropriate.” Korn recalls her father, a classical violinist, mathematician, and poet who grew up in Montreal, talking often about editing the poetry journal at McGill with Leonard Cohen as a cohort.  She again credits Sean Cronin for deepening her grappling with Cohen’s works. Speaking specifically about “Democracy,” a song Cronin asked her to sing for a Cohen tribute, “I would cry learning that song, to have that kind of language in your mouth.”

The wistful “Late September,” one of two Morgan originals, dates back to when he was 20 years old. It holds up alongside the stellar songwriting on the album. "I've actually recorded the song numerous times over the years, but it never made it onto any previous releases" says Kyle.  The other Morgan-penned song, “I’ve Had My Fun,” deals with what he calls his “love-hate relationship with alcohol” and was written on the eve of his moving to NYC.

Brooklyn Folk Fest founder Eli Smith suggested the plaintive Carter Family waltz “Winding Stream.” The Platters’ “The Great Pretender” kicks off to the intertwined voices backed by just a stand-up bass.

Of Korn, Morgan says, “I think of you as an antenna channeling the divine source. Any artist to some degree you can say that about, but you especially.”  She grew up playing classical piano. Upon moving to NYC for college to study theater, she soon found herself at a house party jam. Falling in with the musicians, she started singing New Orleans-style early jazz, eventually busking with them in Washington Square Park, the L train, and Columbus Circle to make rent, which turned into both weekly and one-off gigs.

Following his religious childhood, Morgan’s musical listening worked backwards from rock to roots, Wilco to the high lonesome sound. He says, “I'm obsessed with the Louvin Brothers and that really close kind of high harmony.”

When asked about the origin of the album title, Morgan reflects on William Blake's poem "The Ecchoing Green", in which "darkening green" signifies the end of the day, the fading of youthful joy, and the approach of night or old age. It contrasts with the earlier "ecchoing green," which symbolizes the vibrancy of childhood and the springtime of life.  “There is a general autumnal feeling to this record, a sense of time passing, impermanence and the sad acceptance of the inevitability of loss which I thought was perfectly encapsulated in Blake’s phrase, ‘darkening green.’"