Hear The Salvation Choir Interpret Kevin Morby’s ‘This Is A Photograph’ & Create Your Own Version

Kevin Morby shared a version of his song “This Is A Photograph” by The Salvation Choir. The reworking of the title track to the Kansas City-raised singer-songwriter’s 2022 album heralds a new website from Morby where “others can access stems, instrumentals, tutorials and templates so they can make their own family history epics,” as per a press release.

This Is A Photograph sees Morby reflecting on family after his father had a health scare and Kevin was back at his childhood home looking at old family photos. This Is A Photograph arrived on May 13, 2022.

Morby also has plans to release a companion album titled More Photographs (A Continuum) later this month. While the companion LP sees Kevin himself reworking songs from This Is A Photograph, he was also presented with an interesting idea that would feature others recreating “This Is A Photograph” with their own family histories. Morby explained:

At some point last year, a few of you reached out with the request of getting the music to my song “This Is A Photograph” so you could make your own version and tell your own family’s history. I found this incredibly interesting and had never gotten such requests about any of my other songs before. I have decided to heed the call of those few who reached out and I have made a website.

In celebration of this website, and to lead with an example, I reached out to one of my favorite bands, Kansas City’s own The Salvation Choir, to see if they would want to make their own version of ‘This Is A Photograph’ and was over the moon when they agreed. They created their own version in which they reinterpreted the music in their Congolese Rumba style and reworked the lyrics to their own story and sang in both English and Swahili to provide the listener with a window into their past.

15-yeard-old Salvation Choir drummer Pelo King Wilondja spoke about the experience meeting Kevin and his group’s own “This Is A Photograph”:

“We met Kevin at one of our practices. I didn’t know who he was at first but then our friend played us his music and I started really liking his songs. Now he’s in my top ten. He invited us to his concert and I was actually sweating because it was so good. Kevin asked us if we wanted to remake his song to be about our family’s history and play it in our style. It was my first time recording drums in a real studio. We loved his idea because photographs are really important to our family and we’re always playing music together. There are over 20 members in the choir and everyone has their own story. The song starts out in Africa and it ends in Kansas City where we all live now. It’s about our family’s history and how we got here.”

Listen to “This Is A Photograph (The Salvation Choir Version)” below and check out a clip featuring footage of Salvation Choir performing the song: