Kevin Morby On World Cafe

You know how the old adage goes: "What Would Lou Reed Do?" OK, so nobody really says that — except for Kevin Morby, who says that mantra gave him the confidence to experiment more as he worked on his fourth album, City Music. Morby bills it as a mixtape dedicated to all the cities he can't seem to shake, but there's a whole lot of New York in there — from Reed and the Velvet Underground to Patti Smith to a song that references all four of The Ramones by name.

It makes sense: New York City is a big part of Morby's story. That's where he settled after leaving his hometown of Kansas City, he says, with a sleeping bag and a wave goodbye to his parents at the train station. New York is where he played in his first bands, including garage-rock outfit The Babies. And it's where he delivered fried chicken on a bicycle for a while.

Hear Morby perform "Crybaby" and other songs from City Music in this session, and get a front row seat for his performance of the album's title cut in the video below.

Copyright 2017 XPN. To see more, visit XPN.