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Nashville-based singer-songwriter Lauren Morrow is turning 38 this summer. She says \u201calmost forty\u201d thoughts occasionally take over her brain, attempting to sabotage the wins of her past and present. The curly-haired, curvy blonde is perhaps best known for her decade-long tenure as frontwoman of the popular Atlanta-based Americana band, The Whiskey Gentry. But now Morrow\u2019s exploring a different, truer side of herself with the recent release of her debut album, People Talk<\/em>.<\/p>\n A window into Morrow\u2019s life, the lyrics on the ten-track record all describe her own experiences. The first single, \u201cOnly Nice When I\u2019m High<\/a>,\u201d is a seemingly lighthearted, catchy tune, but it has a big message that\u2019s simultaneously combatting the stigmas surrounding both mental health and cannabis.\u00a0<\/p>\n The song\u2019s accompanying music video features Morrow hanging out with a three-foot-tall joint that somewhat resembles a Sesame Street<\/em> character\u2014a similarity one may interpret as another attempt to normalize the plant. They chill on the couch together, go out and take photo booth selfies together, and yes, get high together. Like a true friend, cannabis is there for her when she needs it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The refrain is hard to forget:\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s only one remedy that I can find It\u2019s not difficult to understand what these lyrics mean\u2014Morrow puts it all out there. \u201cThe song is a very intimate look inside my brain, my thoughts about myself and how I fit in the world around me,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking with Morrow from her home, the vocalist seems to be pleasantly surprised with the turn her life\u2019s taken over the past few years. \u201cIf you would\u2019ve told me when I was in my twenties that Cannabis Now<\/em> would be interviewing me, I\u2019d be like \u2018yeah, fucking right\u2019 because I just didn\u2019t have any space in my life for marijuana, and now it\u2019s something I use every day,\u201d Morrow says, laughing. \u201cI was the antithesis of a stoner in my twenties.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Morrow\u2019s first time smoking weed wasn\u2019t a great experience. She was 15 years old, with her older brother and his friends out in the garage while their mom was out. \u201cI definitely had a panic attack that first night,\u201d Morrow says. \u201cI must have just smoked way too much for my brain to handle.\u201d<\/p>\n After that, every time Morrow tried to smoke weed, her nerves would rise to uncomfortable levels. \u201cThat\u2019s the interesting thing with panic attacks, because once you run one down, your brain can trigger you to think it again,\u201d she says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an enjoyable experience for me for a really long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Years later while touring out with Whiskey Gentry in Colorado, Morrow decided to give cannabis another try. \u201cEveryone in my band smoked weed, and I was like it would be nice to have something that could relax me, but not make me feel stupid,\u201d Morrow says. So, she walked into a dispensary and explained to the budtender<\/a> how she felt when consuming cannabis\u2014how it heightened her anxiety and made her feel panicky. \u201cI got a strain I really liked and started dipping my toe in it and noticed there was a huge difference in my personality in a good way when I\u2019d get a little high,\u201d she says. \u201cIt chills me out, so I\u2019m not wound up so tight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lately, Morrow says her cannabis ritual takes place at the end of the day, just before bedtime. \u201cMy anxiety definitely ramps up in nighttime, so it\u2019s been really nice to lean into that and just smoke some weed and turn my brain off and relax\u2014not to have to think about what\u2019s happening tomorrow, or what happened today, and just be more present.\u201d<\/p>\n Living in Tennessee, where both medical and adult-use cannabis are illegal, it\u2019s been hard for Morrow to get what she wants\u2014unless she\u2019s on tour. The idea to write a song about cannabis after all those years of thinking it \u201cjust wasn\u2019t for her\u201d came about while she and her husband and bandmate Jason Morrow, who she started Whiskey Gentry with, were Christmas shopping in an Atlanta City mall\u2014undoubtedly an ambitious, anxiety-ridden task. Jason was getting stoned in the van before entering the madness and asked her if she wanted to take a hit. Morrow thought, \u201cYeah sure, why not?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As they walked around, she says her husband looked over and said, \u201cHey, you\u2019re a lot nicer when you\u2019re high.\u201d Morrow immediately thought it would make for a good song and got to work. Since the single\u2019s release, Morrow says she\u2019s received a lot of responses from women sharing that their husbands feel the same way about them when they smoke or take an edible.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s because as women we have so much that we\u2019re thinking about all the time and it can be really hard to shut our brains off, with all the things we deal with at work and home,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me, cannabis is something that helps with my general anxiety, just trying to get out of my own head, so I can relax and be cool.\u201d<\/p>\n While \u201cOnly Nice When I\u2019m High\u201d is resonating with busy women nationwide, Morrow\u2019s own journey finding peace has been a long one. It was just four years ago that she was officially diagnosed with an anxiety disorder<\/a>. After deciding it was time to move on from Whiskey Gentry, Morrow and Jason moved to Nashville in 2017. Despite the close-knit community they found there, Morrow says some eye-opening experiences prompted her to seek professional help.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy anxiety was getting so out of control that it was making me depressed, and it was making me not want to do anything. I just wasn\u2019t myself. I was terrified to take medication all the time, but it really has changed my life for the better, 100 percent,\u201d Morrow says, sharing that she now takes an SSRI in combination with cannabis. \u201cI have no shame in talking about that. I feel better on something than I\u2019ve ever felt, and I just basically suffered up until I was 34 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n As Morrow embraces the present moment, her life seems to be coming full circle\u2014rediscovering the clarity of her youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI went through an intense awakening when we moved to Nashville that reminded me of who I was,\u201d Morrow says. \u201cIn my twenties, I was all over the place. I was married, and I had a house, and I had all these things, but I didn\u2019t know what I was doing or what I wanted to do, or if I was even really good at it. There was so much doubt and overthinking.\u201d<\/p>\n People Talk<\/em>\u2014which Morrow says she and Jason ironically funded by selling cannabis during the pandemic\u2014is the singer\u2019s response to the doubt and all the negative noise that surrounds us. Understanding her musical influences, producer Parker Cason helped Morrow tap into her own sound which departs from the Americana and Bluegrass of her past and leaps into a new kind of \u201cPsychedelic Geek Pop Country.\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/em> Well, it\u2019s Lauren Morrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Releasing her debut album at this time in her life wasn\u2019t exactly Morrow\u2019s dream, she says. But age Never mind that she had in fact been making music all that time, touring nationwide with a critically acclaimed band that had already produced four albums. In the eyes of many, she was<\/em> a success. Morrow was searching for something different though\u2014she was searching for herself. \u201cNow I realize it took all of that time\u2014all of that stuff<\/em>\u2014to be able to not only find my own voice, but also to not be scared of it,\u201d Morrow says. \u201cThis music sounds different than what I\u2019ve done before.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowing yourself is one thing; putting yourself out there and sharing it with the world is a whole different beast. Crystals, meditations and affirmations help remind her who she actually is and what she can accomplish. When Morrow first moved to the country music capital, she said she frequently meditated by saying: \u201cEverything I want is coming, and it\u2019s already there for me.\u201d And whenever she looked in the bathroom mirror, this mantra greeted her: \u201cEverything\u2019s always working out for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Those kinds of self-care rituals helped Morrow build back the confidence she\u2019d lost somewhere along the way. \u201cI was never the most popular kid or the skinniest girl, but I always have had a lot of confidence, except for in my twenties,\u201d Morrow says. \u201cI finally feel like I\u2019ve circled back around to \u2018old Lauren.\u2019 There\u2019s something really freeing about not giving a shit. I am who I am, and I can\u2019t change that, nor do I want to.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Lauren Morrow isn\u2019t only nicer\u2014she\u2019s wiser\u2014and she can, in part, thank cannabis. That\u2019s<\/em> something to sing about. \u00a0<\/p>\n The post Lauren Morrow\u2019s (Finally) Ready<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Lauren Morrow is turning 38 this summer. She says \u201calmost forty\u201d thoughts occasionally take over her brain, attempting to sabotage the wins of her past and present. The curly-haired, curvy blonde is perhaps best known for her decade-long tenure as frontwoman of the popular Atlanta-based Americana band, TheContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":483,"featured_media":67285,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,4714,6933,17331,85,3113,89,6641,17332,17333,17223],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67286,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67284\/revisions\/67286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
to leave the prison of my mind<\/em>
You know I\u2019m only nice when I\u2019m high\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Lauren](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Lauren-Morrow-Only-Nice-BTS.jpg\")
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is yet another stigma to be thrown in with all the judgement around mental health and cannabis. In the music industry particularly, Morrow says women are generally mistreated when it comes to how they look or how old they are. So, on the verge of releasing her first record, she couldn\u2019t help but think, \u201cWhy would anyone give a shit? I\u2019m a dinosaur. People are supposed to do this in their twenties.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nRead More: Lauren Morrow\u2019s (Finally) Ready<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"