The Boston-based trio Morphine came to prominence in the mid-1990s with a distinct, smoky sound built around Mark Sandman’s two-string slide bass, Dana Colley’s baritone and tenor saxophones, and stripped-down drums played by Jerome Deupree and later Billy Conway. They called their music “low rock,” and it was like nothing anyone had heard before or since.
The bandmates had yet to achieve mainstream success when their careers abruptly came to a halt after Sandman suffered a fatal heart attack while performing with the band at the Nel Nome del Rock Festival in Palestrina, Italy, in July 1999. The remaining musicians were determined to keep Morphine’s music alive, and they have successfully done that with the group Vapors of Morphine.
Over the years, Vapors of Morphine has frequently performed in western Massachusetts, and the band returns to the Shea Theater Arts Center in Turners Falls on Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. Local alt-country band King Saison will open.
Vapors of Morphine was established in 2009, when Colley, Deupree and Jeremy Lyons, a singer/blues guitarist from New Orleans whom they recruited for vocals, returned to the Nel Nome del Rock Festival for a show honoring the 10th anniversary of Sandman’s death.
“You can imagine how the people there were impacted by Mark’s passing,” Colley said about performing at the festival. “They were incredibly warm and gracious, and over the years have really become kind of part of our extended family. We have played there frequently.”
When Deupree left the band, he was replaced by Tom Arey, an experienced drummer on the Boston scene, in 2019.
Drummer Billy Conway would occasionally play with the band for special shows, but by 2013 he was touring and recording extensively for Shelburne Falls-based singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault. They worked together until Conway’s death in 2021.
Vapors of Morphine has released three albums and toured the world.
Morphine enjoyed far more popularity overseas than here in the United States, and the same has proved to be true with Vapors of Morphine. After the Turners Falls show, the band will head to Spain, Greece and then Bulgaria.
“Mark’s songs were so well-received around the world, they have been somewhat of a calling card for Vapors and paved the way for us,” Cooley said of the tour. “The Eastern bloc has an especially strong appetite for what we do and for the music of the ’90s.”
Morphine’s music has been performed on a variety of television shows; most recently, the song “Cure for Pain” appeared in hit streaming shows like “Euphoria” and “Beef.”
“We see a lot of people at our shows that are the grandchildren of the fans that we initially had in the ’90s,” said Colley, who added that it’s hard to tell what initially brings new listeners to the band. “I think if you are a music lover, you’re going to find Morphine, and if it’s your cup of tea, jump on board.”
Morphine fans, new and old, will be thrilled to hear that a new Morphine album is on the way.
More than 25 years after Sandman’s death, “Cocoon,” an eight-song album, will be released on Dec. 4 through Partisan Records. The material consists of long-buried recordings from a session Morphine had been working on before shelving it to focus on the material that appeared on the band’s final release, “The Night,” released in 2000.
“I physically moved the boxes of tapes from one location to another, so I was painfully aware of their existence,” Colley said. “But there was never a real impetus to delve into them.”
The recordings sat untouched for decades.
It all changed when Sabine Hrechdakian, Sandman’s life partner and executor of his estate, started going through boxes and discovered there was plenty worth salvaging. She hired original producer Paul Kolderie, who remixed all the material, and brought in Colley to add sax to the three tracks that didn’t have any. The material on “Cocoon” finds Morphine moving its sound forward with the addition of piano and acoustic guitar, along with the lineup of sax, bass and drums.
“When Mark passed away, our first project was to put out an anthology of what we had, and that was ‘Sandbox.’ Some songs are on ‘Cocoon,’ but the difference is that they were remixed from the original source, whereas the material on ‘Sandbox’ was rough mixes. ‘Cocoon’ sounds good and it is also going to be available on vinyl, which is a treat,” Colley added.
The title track and an accompanying video are now available for streaming.
Is this the last release we will get from Morphine?
“Never say never, but I don’t really see anything else coming out that will be as interesting as this. Maybe there will be some live recordings,” Colley said.
Vapors of Morphine is not currently playing any of the material from “Cocoon.” For this show at the Shea Theater, expect to hear the band draw from Morphine’s extensive catalog as well as some Vapors of Morphine material.
“We have some of the songs that we’ve written and that we’ve interpreted along the way, and you know, this band has really grown quite a bit,” Colley said. “We’ve been together for longer than Morphine has at this point, and we have toured quite a bit. We have a pretty solid sound and approach, and we generally have a great time playing live. So, we are looking forward to coming out to the Shea.”
Tickets are $20 in advance (plus fees) and available at sheatheater.org, or $26 at the door. The show is for all ages. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at soundslocal@yahoo.com.