''Sharkmouth'' is a

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n singer–songwriter

Russell Morris Russell Norman Morris (born 31 July 1948) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recog ...

. It was released on 12 October 2012 by Fanfare, Ambition Records. The album was presented to all the major labels who declined to release it. It peaked at No. 6 on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

to become Morris' first top ten album and the highest selling album of his career. ''Sharkmouth'' is based on stories from Australia's Depression years and some of their colourful characters, like boxer

Les Darcy James Leslie Darcy (28 October 189524 May 1917) was an Australian boxer. He was a middleweight, but held the Australian Heavyweight Championship title at the same time. Les Darcy was the 2003 Inductee for the Australian National Boxing Hall o ...

, gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s like

Squizzy Taylor Joseph Theodore Leslie "Squizzy" Taylor (29 June 1888 – 27 October 1927) was an Australian gangster from Melbourne. He appeared repeatedly and sometimes prominently in Melbourne news media because of suspicions, formal accusations and some co ...

and, from the 1940s,

Arthur Stace Arthur Malcolm Stace (9 February 1885 – 30 July 1967), known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian soldier. He was an alcoholic from his teenage years until the early 1930s, when he converted to Christianity and began to spread his message by ...

and horse

Phar Lap Phar Lap (4 October 1926 – 5 April 1932) was a champion New Zealand–bred Thoroughbred racehorse who is widely regarded as New Zealand's greatest racehorse ever. Achieving incredible success during his distinguished career, his initial ...

. A ''Making of Sharkmouth'' DVD was released on 15 November 2013.

Background

In an August 2013 interview with Michael Smith of ''TheMusic.com.au'', Morris recalled: "I originally did four tracks, 'Blackdog Blues', 'Ballad of Les Darcy', 'Big Red' and 'Sharkmouth' – and I thought I'd see if anyone was interested. We did the rounds and went to all the record companies, and all of them said no." Morris continued with the recording, "I went back offering not only the album but also the publishing on the album and my old publishing, on songs like '

Wings of an Eagle "Wings of an Eagle" is a song written and recorded by Australian singer Russell Morris, produced by Peter Dawkins. It was released in November 1972 and peaked at number 9 on the Australian Go-Set chart in January 1973, becoming Morris' sixth top t ...

' and '

Sweet, Sweet Love "Sweet, Sweet Love" is a song written and recorded by Australian singer Russell Morris and produced by Howard Gable. It was released as the lead single from his debut album '' Bloodstone''. It peaked at number 7 on the Australian Go-Set chart in Ju ...

', but they still declined to release it." Morris pressed 500 copies of the album and began performing it at gigs when Robert Rigby from

Ambition Entertainment Ambition Entertainment is an entertainment company consisting of five core businesses: recorded music, artist management, music publishing, artist merchandise and live events. Ambition Entertainment is made up of labels *Ambition Records *Fanf ...

said he'd release it under the FanFare label. The project was created after Morris had read about a 1920s gangster from Sydney, Shark Jaws. This was the driving force behind a desire to create an album including Australian characters from the 1920s and 1930s era. Mitch Cairns explains: "To our knowledge, most 'Australiana' characters have been portrayed in a traditional colonial folk sense, so we wanted to find a way to deliver the stories in a more mainstream vein whilst still placing them in a 'vintage era'. A blues style seemed to be the perfect fit!! We tried to keep the vibe of the album raw and honest with lots of textural instruments and sounds, but above all, it had to be simple and spacious. We are also very honoured to have some very special guests on the album, including

Troy Cassar-Daley Troy Cassar-Daley (born 18 May 1969) is an Australian country music songwriter and entertainer. Cassar-Daley has released thirteen studio albums, two live albums and five compilation albums over 30 years, including the platinum-selling ''The Gr ...

Mark Lizotte Mark Denis Lizotte (born 31 May 1966) is an American-born Australian singer-songwriter and musician, who has released material under the name Diesel, Johnny Diesel, as leader of band Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, and as a solo performer, as we ...

and

Renée Geyer Renée Rebecca Geyer (born 11 September 1953) is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's Worl ...

." The album ''Sharkmouth'' has stories about Australian characters which are all moulded together in a melting pot of swinging shuffles and delta grooves.

Accolades

At the

ARIA Music Awards of 2013 The 27th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) were a series of award ceremonies which included the 2013 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fin ...

, the album was nominated for and won

ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Blues and Roots Album, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recor ...

Track listing

Personnel

* Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Resonator Guitar obro– Shannon Bourne * Artwork By – Adam Miller * Backing Vocals – Jerson Trinidad (tracks: 10), Steve Romig (tracks: 2, 4, 9, 10, 12) * Banjo, Cello –

(tracks: 8) * Bass – Mitch Cairns * Drums – Adrian Violi * Electric Guitar olo–

(tracks: 10) * Harmonica – Chris Wilson (tracks: 7, 10, 12) * Mastered by – John Ruberto * Mixed by – David Carr * Piano, Organ – James Black (tracks: 2, 9) * Producer – Mitch Cairns * Recorded By, Engineer – Mitch Cairns * Vocals –

Background

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References