Natalia (Nata) and Christina (Tinka) Morris, better known as the duo American Blonde, are sisters with great harmonies. Besides singing, Tinka plays drums and Nata plays guitar and piano. The duo was formerly known as Southern Halo.
They have another sister, Hannah, who used to perform with them. While Hannah doesn’t do shows with them behind closed doors.
Nata and Tinka will set sail in early February, as they are part of the Divina Music Festival on board the MSC Divina cruise ship. Other artists in the cruise’s lineup includes County Wide, Hippies & Cowboys, From The Edge, and Chas Collins. The cruise will leave Miami, Florida, and visit Ocean Cay and Nassau, Bahamas.
The duo was raised in the Mississippi and were influenced by the music they heard there. Tinka said influences include artists such as Etta James, BB King and Muddy Waters. “We had the blues in our back yard, basically,” Nata said.
The influences weren’t all blues, though. Nata said that they loved Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Tinka said a pivotal moment in their music career was when they had the amazing opportunity to participate in the Texas Country Showdown, adding they advanced from a local round to regionals and onto the finals, which were held at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Nata said they are writing for their next project right now. When they write, Nata is the principal lyricist, while Tinka does a lot of the melody. They find songwriting to be a rewarding way to express themselves.
Nata said they did writing on Zoom during the COVID pandemic. They were depressed that they couldn’t perform shows and they did a lot of writing during that time. She said she feels like it was a pivotal year as a songwriter, adding that she thinks they wrote their entire “Something In The Water” album during that time.
They believe this year will be their biggest year yet. They will be releasing new music and new merchandise.
More information about American Blonde can be found on their website, www.americanblondemusic.com. They can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).