When I was sent a link to American Blonde’s title track, “Delta Home,” from their forthcoming EP, I was blown away. These young blonde southern rockers were unlike anything I had heard in a while.
Tinka and Nata Morris are from the muddy Mississippi Delta region and had a front-row seat to the raw, unfiltered blues scene in their hometown of Cleveland, Mississippi.
While their parents weren’t musical per se, they loved records and kept music playing all the time.
Tinka stated, “We just grew up running around the Delta, going to eat dinners or going out, and we would see these amazing blues musicians and singer-songwriters, and we wanted to be just like them.”
Nata added, “We were absolutely inspired and decided to take that route to see where it would take us.” The sound they created came directly from the Delta dirt.
“It fully raised us,” Nata confirmed.
Tinka and Nata Morris have entertained audiences throughout the US and Europe since they were teens. Originally a sister trio called Southern Halo, they leaned into youthful charm and a brand of Pop/Country that earned them multiple Top 25 singles on the MusicRow Country Breakout Chart. They shared stages with many prominent artists and were finalists in the Ryman Auditorium’s prestigious artist programs.
In 2020, when their sister Hannah decided to pursue a different career, they rebranded as American Blonde. Their current band consists of drummer Tinka and sister Nata, who sings lead, plays acoustic guitar, and writes most of the music. Fellow Mississippians and lifelong musicians Pete Horne (lead, rhythm guitar), Zach Dickerson (lead, rhythm guitar), and Will Garrett (bass, background vocals) round out the group, making them one of the tightest bands I have heard in a long time.
In 2022, American Blonde released their first album, Something in the Water, which spawned the radio hit “Quicksand,” along with the explosive “Volcano” and the swampy title track, “Something in the Water.”
Now American Blonde has teamed up with Grammy nominee and producer Lincoln Parish to create their most ambitious, true-to-self body of work to date: the six-track EP Delta Home. The project captures a sense of homecoming through storytelling that reflects their early blues, rock, and country musical influences.
The threat isn’t thinly veiled with the EP opener, “Mississippi Moonshine,” where the one who done them wrong is adequately warned what will happen, “if he crosses that state line.” The band is on fire with guitar riffs aplenty in this cautionary tale.
The energetic title track autobiographically introduces American Blonde and sets the tone for the rest of the EP. The words Born with the Delta blues/ Raised on rock and roll/ Whole lot of faith in country/ And a little bit of Motown soul/ I’m an all-American blonde/ I bleed red, white and blue/ We say “howdy”/ We get rowdy/ And gonna give a little taste to you foreshadow what is coming for the rest of the song and EP.
One of the things that makes American Blonde’s Delta Home appealing to me is that the music is driven equally by melody and lyric. The rhythm section leads the raucous tune, “Both Sides of the Track.”
That being said, “Kiss Me Like the World is Ending” is a bit of an outlier for American Blonde. Both Tinka and Nata are married, but they are still bluesy rockers. How do you put out an honest love song without losing your gritty edge? In it, the blues guitar drives the chorus as Nata croons Kiss me like the world is ending, babe/ Like the sun is burning out today/ Love me like it will all be gone tomorrow/ Even though I know it probably ain’t/ Kiss me like the world is ending, babe.
This wasn’t the band’s usual fare, but when they heard it, they wanted to include it. “Kiss Me Like the World is Ending” is a beautiful song that you can listen to on Sunday morning drinking coffee with your partner.
They slow it down with the meaningful “Happy” that speaks of always trying to please everyone while neglecting yourself. Written during the pandemic, Nata felt the pressure of being the overachieving oldest daughter while struggling with her own mental health. When she thought she might not ever see the light of day, the honest words poured out. The driving beat and bending guitar chords escalate as they come to terms with the truth of it.
Nata shared, “We don’t really have a lot of vulnerable songs, but if it’s real to me, it will be real to others.” Tinka added, “Especially mothers who have young children who feel like their world’s falling apart around them. You can’t take care of yourself, but you always show up and take care of others.”
Nata continued, “It is OK to feel the realness, but you have to pick yourself back up too. Being in the music industry too, you’re expected always to have it together and put that smile on your face and still play to that crowd, so fans need to know we don’t always have it together.”
Tinka praised, “Hats off to Lincoln [Parish] for giving this song direction and pulling it all together.”
Delta Home concludes with a magnificent take on a murder ballad with “Undertaker.” They return to their usual sassy selves as they kill a doomed relationship with the succinct lyrics: I killed off my feelings/ When you left me alone/ What we had, baby/ Is pushing up daisies/ With a goodbye letter I wrote in stone/ You can’t resurrect it/ There ain’t none of that to save/ Took your heart to meet its maker/ Just call me the undertaker.
I can almost feel the Mississippi mud oozing between my toes as I listen to the captivating tale. It may be my favorite song from the EP.
After officially becoming American Blonde in 2020, their Delta Home EP proves that the sisters and the band have figured out who they are and where they belong in a world of country, rock, blues, and soul. Reared in the heart of where real American music began, their years of woodshedding and soul-searching have led to a sonic sense of self that is as natural as a whispering Delta breeze.
The energetic American Blonde is best experienced live if possible. If you live in the Nashville area, catch them at the Brooklyn Bowl on October 11th, opening for Candlebox, and at The Underdog on October 18th. Check their website for more tour dates.
Follow American Blonde on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and TikTok
Delta Home Track listing
1. Mississippi Moonshine (N. Morris, C. Downs)
2. Delta Home (N. Morris, C. Morris, M. Mulch)
3. Both Sides Of The Track (L. Wright, W. Lunsford)
4. Kiss Me Like The World Is Ending (N. Morris, J. Nash)
5. Happy (N. Morris, J. Nash)
6. Undertaker (N. Morris, J. Nash)
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