extended bio

Picture a crooner like Chris Isaak or Roy Orbison singing cinematic Western ballads in a spirit akin to Marty Robbins or Tom Waits and you'll start to understand the crossroads where Collin Morlock waits to find his songs. The Wyoming-based singer-songwriter combines atmospheric, moody lyricism with a broad spectrum of musical traditions—60's Folk, Classic Country, American Roots genres, Tin Pan Alley Pop, 50's Rock, Spaghetti Western and even some Latin Jazz—pulling them apart and reassembling them into something simple and unique, always striving to strike the balance between freshness and timelessness.

"Here is pure Americana, a songwriter to base your own craft after. One of those rare cases you know you're witnessing the humble beginnings of, someone who can take what they're doing as far as they wish."

• Branson Anderson, Singer-Songwriter

Originally from Idaho, Morlock's musical education has spent years unfolding—from dive bars and street corners in New Orleans to long bursts of songwriting while living Nashville, from the desert of northern Wyoming to the creative cradle of Taos, New Mexico. He founded the Taos Songwriters Guild, has had songs place top-5 in the Wyoming Singer-Songwriter Competition, and has spent over a decade seasoning his sound in every type of venue across the country —from noisy saloons to theaters and listening rooms.

"Collin Morlock opened up the night with his unique blend of neo-traditional western ballads of heartbreak and upbeat genuine songs whispering of a silver lining in the depths of eternal darkness. You could hear a pin drop as Morlock captivated the audience with his crooner-esque melodies and precision guitar playing."

• Ben Wood, The Wayfarer

Morlock's journey to finding his sound was anything but linear. At twenty-six, he left Idaho for New Orleans, then Nashville, unsure how he would make his way into the music world. He played open mics, worked menial jobs and did gig work, always trying to get ahead of the ever-rising rent while making time for songwriting and going deeper into his craft. By 2018, after two years in Nashville, defeated and not making much material progress, he waved the white flag. He headed back West thinking it would be temporary, but with the pandemic starting only six months after he’d left Nashville, Wyoming ended up changing everything.

Working as a farmhand in the Bighorn Basin, living in near-isolation in the desert, something finally clicked. Back in the West after years away, the landscape that surrounded him became a feature of his songwriting, which was further inspired by a period of watching classic westerns and voraciously listening to Spaghetti Western soundtracks, Flamenco and traditional music from Latin America. With this fascination came another curiosity about the Southwest and desiring to live there after the pandemic lifted, he synthesizing the folk, country, and Americana influences he’d gathered in New Orleans and Nashville with these new sounds and images that were inspiring him. It all found a proper vessel in his “phantasmagorical imaginings” — as he likes to call the songs that were showing up out of nowhere and from no direct personal experience, but still felt like the Truth.

In this period of solitude, he wrote the first body of work that felt truly his—songs balancing images with honesty, truth with fiction, darkness with light. From Wyoming, he took these songs to Taos for several years, where he immersed himself in the music community and began playing with a band.

These are songs for people who don’t quit despite the ongoing defeats. Caught between where they've been and where they're going— these are songs where the Western landscapes become both a blank canvas and a mirror for the psyche.

"In the time that I've been doing Fresh Wind sessions, they have become one of my main avenues for hearing new music. I often find myself listening to a session on repeat in the time between when I record it and when it airs… And, some of the sessions truly stick around as part of my listening world long after that. Collin Morlock's session was one of those. I listened to it so many times in the months after it aired that, when he and I played a show together this past summer on one of his sojourns back to Taos from Northern Wyoming (where he is currently living), I found myself feeling a little starstruck.”

• Richard Aufrichtig, Radio Host and Singer-Songwriter

After years of learning to record in the studio, Morlock self-produced and released his first EP "Moonflower Demos" in summer 2023 with the help of Taos producer/engineer Peter Oviatt. This collection was later remixed and re-released as the self-titled album "Collin Morlock." His second EP, "Thanks For The Song"—a collection of six songs written during his New Mexico years and produced, recorded, and mixed across three years—is finding its way to the world in 2026.

The songs are simple and familiar, but somehow elude the easy trappings and clichés of the genres from which they were drawn. No stranger to the traveling life, Morlock began touring in earnest in spring 2025 with a run through Idaho, Nevada, and Northern California, and hasn't stopped moving since. He continues to write, record, and bring his cinematic Western sound to stages across the American West, always searching for that next song waiting at the crossroads.