Bio

Marques Morel is an American songwriter/story-teller, midwestern-twanger/folksinger, guitar-thumper/harmonica wailer, street-performer/wandering troubadour, steadfast woodcutter/migrant worker, a father, a son, and a friend to all.

“Taking his cue from the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, and any number of other tattered troubadours, (Marques Morel) sounds like a cross between Johnny Cash, Bob Seger, and the late John Stewart (solo, The Kingston Trio) reciting ragged tales of the American West and its once-former glories,” writes Lee Zimmerman of The Alternate Root.

Originally from the Illinois corn country, he has performed just about anywhere that anybody would listen: big city street corners around the world, county fairs, folk festivals, hole in the wall taverns/divebars/honky tonks, cabin porches, backyard barbeques, listening rooms, theatres large and small, and beside many campfires and woodstoves amongst the ghosts of his songwriter heroes.

Marques has had the honor of sharing stages with some of the great songsters of our time- Charlie Parr, Arlo McKinley, Joe Pug, Willy Tea Taylor, Riley Downing, Billy Don Burns, Pokey LaFarge, and Chicago Farmer to name a few of his favorites.

Marques has released five original albums to date: “Live and Raw in Rockford” (2013) and “Searching for America” (2014) were recorded bare bones with passion before his hiatus from solo work for about 6 years. In 2021 Morel returned to the studio for “Trail of The Ghost” and in 2022 he released his first full band record- “Wind and Rain.”

In June of 2024 Morel released “Tales and Tellings,” his first work to earn widespread critical acclaim. “Tales and Tellings” was recorded at Bomb Shelter studio in Nashville, TN and produced by Andrija Tokic (producer of The Deslondes, John R. Miller, Ian Noe, Luke Bell, etc.). In response to the record, NO DEPRESSION stated- “There’s no filler here. Every song on ‘Tales and Tellings’ is packed with plenty of ear candy, revealing Morel’s wry wit that never turns smarmy. It’s delivered from the heart, dusty and roadworn, but undaunted.”

Known for his intense and infectious energy on stage and his gritty and honest songwriting and delivery, Marques Morel has been described by his fans as “raw and rustic” and “guts on the floor,” sometimes abandoning the mic and guitar cable to march into the crowd and lead a raucous bar or a sterile listening room into a grand finale of singalongs and stompalongs. He currently plays around 150 shows a year and will be found performing either as a one man show accompanied by his old guitar, harmonica on the rack, and makeshift kick drum, or with his dynamic and spirited band, The Midnight Wind.