The morning of my interview with Minneapolis-based musician Sarah Morris, I poured a cup of coffee and opened my laptop, ready to immerse myself in her work ahead of her upcoming performance at the North Shore Winery in Lutsen.
My usual prep routine kicked in: listen widely, explore collaborations, watch live performances, and skim past interviews to avoid repeating the obvious. But before I finished my first mug, one song stopped me cold.
All Mine found me in a moment I hadn’t realized I needed music to hold. I’ve been feeling off-course lately, unsure of the bigger picture, and the song reassured me that it’s okay to be lost. The story still belongs to me.
Later that afternoon, I told Morris how deeply it struck me, fumbling for the right words to thank her for writing such an honest, anchoring song. By then, I wasn’t just a journalist. I was a fan.
“That song is one I come back to time and again,” she said. “It feels like my anthem. I never get tired of singing that one.”
The title track from her 2020 album, the meaning of All Mine unfolded for Morris only after time had passed.
“I didn’t even know why I was writing that song until a year and a half later,” she admitted. “Then it was kind of like, ‘oh, I wrote that because future Sarah needed this message.’”
Well, this future Sarah needed it, too — all these years later, right when it mattered most.
As we talked about how songs often meet you exactly where you are, Morris pointed to her forthcoming album, Say Yes, as another example. She named it while staying in Lutsen, gazing at the woods and mountains beyond her window.
“The title just came to me,” she said. “That moment was so special that was what I wanted to call the album—Say Yes.”
The phrase carries weight across the record. One track, Love, reminds listeners that even though love can be elusive, difficult, and at times heartbreaking, it is still worth chasing.
“It will ask you to fall, say yes,” she explained. “I wanted my kids someday to say yes, to love, even knowing that it will break their hearts.”
Morris has said yes to music for decades. A graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, she won the Kerrville New Folk Competition in 2018 and has been recognized three times as the Midwest Country Music Organization’s Songwriter of the Year. Her songwriting has also earned national recognition in competitions across the country.
Her music blends Americana warmth with folk-pop brightness, pairing graceful melodies with lyrics that cut straight to the heart. Her songs move like conversations, often vulnerable, generous, and unafraid to hold both hope and heartbreak in the same breath. Whether backed by a full band or standing solo with her guitar, she creates a space that feels intimate and expansive all at once.
Since releasing her debut album Lonely or Free in 2011, Morris has followed with Ordinary Things, Hearts in Need of Repair, and All Mine. Her fifth album, Here’s to You, was awarded Album of the Year by the Midwest Country Music Organization in 2023.
Her sixth record, Say Yes, arrives October 10 and is both her most vulnerable and most hopeful project yet. Recorded live in the studio with her band, it marks a departure from the more solitary process of her earlier albums where she would record her vocals separately.
When asked about collaborations, Morris first named her current and former bandmates. These days, her Twin Cities band includes drummer Lars Erik-Larson, fiddle and vocalist Haley E. Rydell, multi-instrumentalist and producer Dave Mehling, and bassist Nick Salisbury.
She also finds joy in side projects like Toilet Tunes, a web series filmed in her green-painted bathroom where she and friends gather for impromptu performances.
“It’s hard to pick favorites when you love everybody,” she said. “And I do.”
Morris spends 50 to 60 hours a week making music, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“There was never a different plan, so in that way, I lucked out,” she said. “I shouldn’t say it’s all luck, it’s definitely a lot of work, but there’s also a lot of luck and fortune. That means that I get to keep doing this, which I never ever, ever, ever take for granted.”
She’s also mom to two teenagers and two dogs. Her son plays saxophone in band, her daughter loves to sing, and though family sing-alongs aren’t a thing at this stage, Morris hopes they will be someday.
Quite familiar with the North Shore, Morris is looking forward to returning. Over the past few years she has performed at the Lutsen Music Festival, led hike concerts, and helped organize the Lutsen Songwriter Retreat.
Morris returns this Sunday, September 28, for a solo set at the North Shore Winery from 3–5 p.m. For those eager for a sneak peek before the official release at the Dakota on October 10, she’ll have early copies of Say Yes available.
“I try to get up there when I can. I’ve always had a very big love for Lake Superior,” she said.
There’s something about the North Shore, the way it holds space for reflection, for music, for meaning. Sarah Morris knows that well. Her songs carry that same quiet power: they meet you in the woods, in the heartbreak, in the hope. And they ask you to say yes.
Find Sarah Morris at sarahmorrismusic.com, on YouTube, or on Spotify, where the This is Sarah Morris playlist delightfully surprised me by including her tender cover of Baby Mine from Disney’s Dumbo. When I told her she had good taste, she assured me I do, too.
