New Box Set to Celebrate Morphine's Mark Sandman

Morphine leader Mark Sandman was the inventor of a sound called “low rock”—the distinctive blend of sonorous saxophone, bass and deep grooves that, along with his lyric poetry, propelled Morphine to fame. Although Morphine and the seminal swamp-blues quartet Treat Her Right had underground success, much of Sandman’s work was never commercially released and remains unheard by anyone outside his circle of friends.

Sandbox: Mark Sandman Original Music, the forthcoming box-set retrospective of Sandman’s music, promises to bring everyone into that circle. The two-CD/DVD set features 31 songs, as well as rare and unseen footage. Sandbox will be released on Nov. 16 on Hi-N-Dry.

After Mark’s untimely death in 1999, the surviving members of Morphine—Billy Conway and Dana Colley—organized the Morphine Orchestra tour in 2000 as a tribute to Mark and his music. Then they began meticulously culling the large collection of original music, poetry and art he’d left behind. As they pored through his many hours of tape, even his closest friends were surprised at how prolific Sandman was.

“This set just scratches the surface,” writes album annotator Ted Drozdowski. “Not only of the vast body of Mark’s previously unveiled work, but of a life richly lived on its own terms and done too soon. And always, always, always to be remembered warmly and well.”