Morning Comes is one of the first songs ever written for Delta Rae.
It was 2009, in the hight of a recession in America, and Ian was working for lauded North Carolina author, Reynolds Price. It was an intense and immersive job where Ian lived as Reynold’s assistant and full-time caretaker, living in his home with him with five hours off a week.
Meanwhile, Eric had just graduated from college and moved into the six-bedroom Windover house in north Durham to start fixing it up before Brittany and Liz moved in.
Here’s a video to give you a sense of where Ian and Eric were at the time:
With this context Ian and Eric started writing Morning Comes.
“Morning Comes is the first song Eric and I ever wrote for Delta Rae and it has only become more important to me over time.
Inspired by the writing of Reynolds Price and the music of Ray Lamontagne, I wanted to capture a simple message wrapped in the visuals and plaintive wisdom of the defiant, perseverant family I grew up admiring. Since it’s writing, it has been a resounding anthem I’ve come back to in navigating difficult moments.
Hope you enjoy and thank you for adding so much meaning to this song yourselves.”
- Ian
The band started playing shows in 2009 and 2010 and Morning Comes became a staple in the set. Here is a video of one of the band’s first performances as a coffee shop in Durham, NC called The Bean and Barrel. You can hear the original inspiration of Ray Lamontagne in these early acoustic versions.
The song found its way onto Delta Rae’s first EP, recorded in Eric’s bedroom. Here is a brief clip of the band trying to nail the timing into the first chorus. This was before the band found Mike and Grant, so their friend James Goldberg sat in on bass.
After recording the song for the EP it started to really take off in live shows around North Carolina.
The song was working, so when Delta Rae started working with Alex Wong to record Carry The Fire it was obvious that Morning Comes would be on the album. Alex wanted to lead into the Rock feeling he got from the song and brought on Kiyanu Kim to play electric guitar. Here is a clip where Alex helps carve out the percussive part for the piano at Angelhouse studios (Alex’s Living Room) in Brooklyn, NY.
When the band signed with Warner in 2012 Morning Comes became a focus track. Originally the plan was to make music videos for every song on the album so the band recorded an epically hilarious music video on a beach in Los Angeles.
The song has gone on to connect with audiences around the world.
It is a hopeful reminder that we can be surprised by good news just as easily as bad news.
After the night the morning comes.