Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Staying True to Myself from the Pews to the Stage

Maroon 5 keyboardist Morton debuts with a run-of-the-mill account of his faith and his musical career. Growing up steeped in the musical traditions of his pastor father’s New Orleans church, Morton played in gospel bands and choirs until his teens, when a Stevie Wonder record “changed my musical brain” and inspired him to start writing R&B love songs. After garnering some success with his college band FreeStyle Nation, Morton initially struck out as a solo artist (“My songs weren’t sexual enough to be R&B, and they definitely weren’t gospel”). Success came in fits and starts until a chance audition with Maroon 5 in 2010 put him on the band’s path to stardom and also accelerated his solo career (he would go on to earn a Grammy nomination for his breakout 2017 album Gumbo). Unfortunately, his successes and failures feel untethered to the meandering narrative, and even moments of emotional crisis—for example, telling his father he’d decided not to pursue a career in Christian music—resolve quickly and without fanfare. Only devoted Maroon 5 fans need apply. (Nov.)