American Blonde Blend Country Pop and Roots Rock on “All Horses Firin’”

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There must be something in the water!

Do blondes really have more fun?   Sister Natalia and Christina Morris – the duo that comprise American Blonde – are having plenty of fun and success. 

American Blonde has evolved from the trio known as Southern Halo that exploded on the scene, becoming fan favourites at the 2014 Texaco Country Showdown and releasing an EP produced by Alabama’s Jeff Cook. Two critically-acclaimed CDs followed before youngest sister Hannah decided to leave the group and pursue other options.  Now lead singer and guitarist Natalie (“Nata”) and drummer Christina (“Tinka”) have emerged as a tight duo with new recordings and an ever-growing tour schedule.  

With their latest album, titled Something in the Water, and a new single “All Horses Firin’” bringing them to the attention of new fans, American Blonde are into a new phase of their musical career as a sibling duo with a harder rocking attitude.  

I met with Nata and Tinka to talk about their current music and future plans. I asked them to tell me about “All Horses Firin’”.

“Oh my goodness!  ‘All Horses Firin’ is such a fun song that we’ve done as one of the first singles we’ve put out as American Blonde,” said an enthusiastic Tinka.  “It’s such a rockin’ anthem that we truly relate to because Nata and I, our whole lives, we’ve lived on the edge, ‘life in the fast lane’ type of thing, and we’ve just always wanted a song that resembled that type of lifestyle for us because we’ve always been like that. On the go, on the road, no matter what, we’re never slowing down. So we actually got to put it out recently as a single and it’s been so much fun.”

They have recently made a music video for the single and are actually wrapping it up right now.  “It’s got so many cool different aspects in it,” said Nata, “Like Nata racing, us performing at the Music City Grand Prix which was super cool, doing the hair flicks and everything! People seem to love it.  As soon as we play it, everyone is, like, ‘Yeah!’  You can tell. Their heads are banging and their energy is all the way up.  We just love rockin’ out to that one!”

That naturally led us to talk about “Something in the Water” and the music video that it spawned. They told me that the video shoot was so much fun, mainly because “Something in the Water” was the very first song that they put out as American Blonde.

“It was kind of our anthem breakout song, setting the stage of who we wanted to be known as moving forward,” explained Nata.  “So one of our goals was getting back to our roots and I think we perfectly displayed that in the track itself. What brought it to life even more was going back to our home town and getting a lot of fun shots around historic sites like the Baby Doll House which was out there on the levy in Mississippi and we had some other fun little places around the Mississippi delta as well. It was so cool, being able to do that in such a very historical, rootsy kind of place.”

Nata added that it gave them the opportunity to use their acting skills as well. “We’d never done that before so we had to get ready,” she said.  “We put on some makeup and we had to do some things over and over, like we were filming a movie. It was pouring rain outside, we were getting choked by the fog machine, Tinka was playing the drums with lightning behind her!  It was dangerous but fun!”  Watch the official music video at YouTube here American Blonde - Somethin' In the Water (Official Music Video) - YouTube.

A few days after we met, American Blonde was set to appear at Izzy’s in Franklin, Tenn., in an ‘Izzy’s After Dark’ acoustic concert, sponsored by Franklin Distillery and Rhyme Partners.

"Everybody at Izzy’s has been super sweet to us and they wanted it to be special because this was the first time they were actually doing an ‘Izzy’s After Dark’ event,” said Tinka. “We were honored and knew this would be so much fun! Then they were like, ‘Let’s make it even more fun. Let’s make a special limited edition cocktail.’  And they asked us, ‘What do y’all want it to be like?’  I was thinking to myself, ‘We’re American Blonde, let’s make it red, white and blue!’”

So they had the colors, but didn’t know how to make the drink. Luckily, there were experts on hand who did know. “They put in some blue Curacao and some Franklin Distillery Company vodka and I think some white lemonade and red raspberry liquor, and it was beautiful!” explained Tinka.  “You mix it up and it turns into this beautiful purple drink! It tastes amazing, y’all!”

Nata and Tinka are quick to acknowledge the influences that affect their music.

“One that really sticks out for me personally is Grace Potter,” said Nata.  “I just love her soul. When you listen to her music or watch her live, it just makes you feel exactly what she’s going through. I know Tinka feels the same thing. The new songs that we have out here, it’s really inspired us to become more vulnerable. Writing songs that not only reflect what we feel but we understand what other people are going through as well.  Kind of like anthems in a way, that you can listen to whether you are feeling really good or really down or just somewhere in between.” 

Nata summed it up this way: “I think with Tinka’s drumming and our authentic raw roots and passion, we bring it together with so many different influences from the blues, rock and country we make our own sound as American Blonde.”

The duo spend a lot of their time on the road, with dates set for St. Augustine, Florida, in their immediate future.

“We have a lot of fun things coming up that we’re super excited about,” said Tinka. “There are some drawbacks of touring all the time, but there are really more pros than cons I would have to say.”

At this point, Nata interjected, “Apart from leaving the fur babies behind! I have two cats and two dogs and I can’t bear to leave them.”

Tinka agreed, adding, “Sometimes you have to miss out on family gatherings, because you’re always performing on the weekend, but at the end of the day it’s what you love and what you want to do and you have to make sacrifices for that.”

“Fun” is a word that crops up frequently when Nata and Tinka Morris are talking, but there’s no doubt they are fully focused on their music and the hard work that lies ahead on the path to continued success.  But American Blonde certainly do have more fun and so do the audiences at their energy-filled live shows.

Keep up with American Blonde and their tour dates at their website American Blonde (americanblondemusic.com) where you can download/stream their music and link to their socials, and on Facebook at American Blonde | Facebook.