Fort Collins-based musician Cary Morin and bassist Celeste Di Iorio join KGNU host Meredith Carson to talk about their new album, Pocket of Time. They discuss producing the record independently, the lessons they’ve learned from years in professional recording studios, and how changing times have reshaped their creative process.
The duo also shares stories behind several of their songs, including music inspired by Charles M. Russell’s paintings, a love song to Colorado’s Front Range, and a powerful family story rooted in Cary’s Crow heritage. They round out the conversation with a look at upcoming performances in Colorado and beyond, including appearances at FoCoMX, Dazzle, and the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music (Air Date 4/10/26).
Listen to the local gold here:
Transcript:
Meredith Carson: Welcome to the studios, Cary. And please forgive me—
Celeste Di Iorio: Celeste.
Meredith Carson: Celeste, of course. How could I? It’s been a while. You guys keep yourselves up in Fort Collins, so we don’t get to see you that much. But there are all kinds of good reasons to be seeing you today. You have a brand-new CD out, Cary.
Cary Morin: We do.
Meredith Carson: We heard a cut from it earlier. We heard “I Remember You,” I think?
Cary Morin: Yep.
Meredith Carson: First cut. Wonderful. Pocket of Time. So this is brand spanking new?
Cary Morin: It is. We put out the Charlie Russell album—songs inspired by Charlie Russell paintings—a couple of years ago.
Meredith Carson: Yeah, that was wonderful. I’m a huge Charles Russell fan. My parents were as well.
Cary Morin: We found out who the big fans were and who had no idea who he was. Hopefully people got an introduction to him, and if they already knew his work, they could recognize the direction the songs were taking.
We did that album, and now Pocket of Time is the newest release. We’re really excited about it because, with changing times and the price of fuel, we’re not driving around as much as we have in the past. We produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered this album ourselves.
Meredith Carson: Wow.
Cary Morin: I think that’s the shape of things to come for us.
Meredith Carson: Done with recording studios. So many of them are closing because exactly this is happening, and there are so many tools available now.
Cary Morin: Yeah. It was because of all the time we spent in recording studios that we learned how to do it, watching all those great engineers.
Meredith Carson: And…
Celeste Di Iorio: …gals.
Cary Morin: And women, yes.
Meredith Carson: Thank you, Celeste. Solidarity over there in the corner.
Celeste Di Iorio: We had some great engineers over the years. Three of my favorites were Jim Tuttle here regionally, Tony Daigle down in Lafayette, Louisiana, where we recorded at Dockside, and Trina Shoemaker in Alabama, another Grammy Award-winning engineer. She’s a powerhouse.
We love them all, and if the financial times were more amenable, we’d certainly love to go back into the studio and work with all that great talent.
Meredith Carson: It doesn’t hurt to work with the best and learn from them.
Celeste Di Iorio: Absolutely. We’ve learned an awful lot over the years using professional publicists, engineers, and wonderful studios.
Meredith Carson: All right. How about you guys play a couple of tunes back-to-back?
Cary Morin: Okay.
Meredith Carson: That work?
Cary Morin: That works.
Meredith Carson: All right.
Cary Morin: We’re going to start with one of the tunes from the last album called “Big Sky, Sun Goes Down.” Like all the songs on that album, it was written about a Charles Russell painting. Russell died 100 years ago, and I believe the anniversary of his death is this year.
I grew up around those paintings in Montana. This particular tune is about the great landscapes he painted. Some of them are so familiar that I can look at them and know where the house my dad bought would be situated in those scenes.
Meredith Carson: Whoa.
Cary Morin: It’s kind of crazy. That’s how close I was to his paintings—almost being in them.
Meredith Carson: Yeah.
Cary Morin: Here we go.
[Performance: “Big Sky, Sun Goes Down”]
Meredith Carson: Cary Morin and Celeste Di Iorio live on KGNU. They have a brand-new CD out called Pocket of Time. Roll right into another?
Cary Morin: Yeah, sure. This is a song I’ve always considered to be a love song for Colorado’s Front Range. It’s called “Trust.”
[Performance: “Trust”]
Meredith Carson: Celeste Di Iorio. Celeste, am I pronouncing your name correctly?
Celeste Di Iorio: Yes. Perfect.
Meredith Carson: Excellent. Thank you all for making the trek down from Fort Collins to play live in our studios this morning.
Cary Morin: Thanks. We enjoy any opportunity to avoid I-25.
Meredith Carson: Indeed.
Cary Morin: Anywhere we go.
Meredith Carson: It was a nice drive this morning. I’ll go miles out of the way and spend hours to avoid highways altogether.
Do you all have some gigs coming up that you want people to know about?
Celeste Di Iorio: Sure.
Cary Morin: We do.
Meredith Carson: “Sure,” says Celeste.
Celeste Di Iorio: We’re playing FoCoMX in Fort Collins, which is always fun. We’ll be at Washington’s on Saturday the 25th.
Then we’ll be taking our band, Cary Morin & Ghost Dog, up to Rapid City. We haven’t done that in a while, so that’ll be a blast. We’ll be co-billed with Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton? (Note: original transcript appears to identify another artist; verify if needed.)
We’ll also be at the Grand Mesa Arts Center as a duo in May, then at Dazzle in Denver at the end of May with the band.
Then Cary and I head to the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on June 1 to do a show with our dear friend and colleague, Pura Fé.
Meredith Carson: Where is the Bruce Springsteen Center?
Celeste Di Iorio: At Monmouth University in New Jersey.
Meredith Carson: If you’re not from the East, you’re probably not familiar with it.
Celeste Di Iorio: It’s new. It’ll actually be opening that week.
Meredith Carson: And you guys are playing the opening?
Celeste Di Iorio: We’re performing as part of a Native celebration sponsored through the Hard Rock organization. It’ll be at the center, so that should be a lot of fun. Then we’ve got various and sundry things throughout the summer.
Meredith Carson: Sounds like you’ll have some fun traveling, too. Normally in April we’d say, “Don’t get on the highway,” but this year the crabapples have already bloomed. It looks sunny and mild.
Celeste Di Iorio: It sure does. It’s crazy.
Meredith Carson: Lucky us. You got one more song for us this morning?
Cary Morin: Sure. This song is about my family and a situation my great-great-grandmother found herself in when she was a teenager. This would have been around the 1850s, toward the end of the nomadic days for the Crow people, whose homeland stretched from the Canadian border all the way down to this area. They traveled constantly in search of food and to defend their nation.
My great-great-grandmother was kidnapped during those days, and this is a song about how she escaped.
[Performance]
Meredith Carson: Cary Morin and Celeste Di Iorio live in the KGNU studios. Cary and Celeste, it’s been wonderful having you with us this morning. Thanks again for making the trek.
Cary Morin: Thanks for having us.
Meredith Carson: We appreciate it. What’s the best way for people to find everything we talked about this morning?
Cary Morin: You can track us down on just about any social platform—even Myspace. Remember that? Or carymorin.com is the go-to for everything.
Meredith Carson: That’s C-A-R-Y M-O-R-I-N.
Cary Morin: Correct.
Meredith Carson: Excellent. Thank you both so much for coming in. This was an absolute pleasure, and thanks for bringing us your brand-new record. It’s already in our system, so it’ll be getting airplay.
Cary Morin: Thanks for playing it.
Meredith Carson: You’re very welcome. We’ll see you next time. Have a wonderful summer.
Cary Morin: We’ll see you again.
Meredith Carson: It’s a deal.
Celeste Di Iorio: Thank you.
