brian mcdade
Brian McDade: LOVE BAYOU
On the cover of Brian McDade's fourth and latest album, LOVE BAYOU, the Mississippi River intersects with Scotlands River Clyde. Its a perfect metaphor for the music of this thoughtful yet jovial poet-troubadour from the Scottish town of Coatbridge. McDade isn't concerned with boundaries - of geography, of time or of genre. Asked to describe his music, he responds simply, "Country rock," then adds: "Also roots Americana and a new word I conjured up, I think: "Scotiana."
Why not? Gram Parsons had his "cosmic American music" and Van Morrison his "Caledonia soul." Ultimately, of course, what matters is not the label but what's inside - which in the case of LOVE BAYOU is richly textured, intimately soulful collection of stories sung with empathy, conviction and humor; steeped in blues and rock; and married to meaty grooves laid dowen by an A-team of Nashville's most expressive players: Jeff "Stick" Davis on bass and backing vocals; Barry "Byrd" Burton on guitars and lap steel; Michael Webb on Hammond organ, piano and accordion; and Bryan Owings on drums and percussion.
McDade, a 53-year-old construction worker who's "just getting started" with his music, exudes earnest camaraderie. It's easy to imagine sharing pints and lively conversation with him at the neighborhood pub. Quick to make friends, he soon is leaning over conspiratorially, eyes a-twinkle, to spin a wild tale or make a pun in his warm Scottish brogue. He wears the storyteller's hat comfortably. "I've been writing songs for 30 years," he says. "It was always my own songs to the fore. I love being a band singer, but I still like to go out with just an acoustic guitar." In doing so, he developed a keen eye for picking out indelible details amid varied landscapes. "I write about people, places, peace, war, justice, injustice, love, beer, good, bad, the spiritual, circus clowns, stevedores, vaudeville, cars, roads, steel men, good-time girls, cutthroats, pimps, trannies, police, life, ......
"My songs are about getting a story across and making pictures in people's heads. I'm selling a story, not just a groove."
Lyrically and musically, LOVE BAYOU is a travelogue. Scenes of romance intrigue and human folly are set against such backdrops as the hills of Scotland, the streets of Paris, the California desert, Mexico and the Mississippi Delta. Meanwhile, the supple yet muscular band lays down a sonic palette rich in colors from Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, the West Coast and, of course, the British Isles.
"It was only recently that I thought about the geography of LOVE BAYOU," McDade says. "I get inspired by places and faces. A sleight of word, a twist of phrase, is eaten up into the always lurking song machine, and spat out as title or clue to a new song."
Said machine is fueled by myriad influences, experiences and locales. As a child of the 1950s, McDade soaked up Sunday afternoon movies, black gospel singers, the blues, Chuck Berry. During his teens and early 20s, inspiration came from the Beatles, Free and The Band; since then, his muse has drawn feely from both sides of the Atlantic: Frankie Miller, Van Morrison, Bob Seger, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash.
His work experience has been equally varied. He has picked grapes in southern France, sold bootleg perfume in Los Angeles, painted houses in Venice, toiled as a union pipe fitter, cleaned windows high up on a Hollywood hotel. Through it all, he collected fodder for his songs while saving money to record them.
He moved to London in 1980, fronting rock bands on the pub circuit. Unfortunately, it was a time when anemic synth bands were in vogue. In 1987 he split for Los Angeles, where he found fans and residency at the King George Pub in Santa Monica. He assembled a four-piece band and toured the West Coast. the band came to the attention of engineer Brian Levi (Dwight Yoakam), who produced McDade's first record, S.O.B.W. (SON OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN), at his San Fernando studio.
In 1991 McDade returned to Scotland, after an absence of 11.5 years, still on a high from his recording debut. He would receive a hard lesson in patience. Interest in the record from Atlantic Records ended when the label's top attorney changed jobs. In 1993, McDade started his own music production company, One True Note (O.T.N.). Though a subsequent album released in Scotland, King of a Moonlit Night, received airplay and sold OK, McDade felt frustrated by "crap gigs" and a restrictive country music scene. Finally, the band folded and he set out on his own. A London record company rep heard McDade, and the label put out S.O.B.W. in 1997 - seven years after he'd recorded it.
Two years later, he took a two-month gig in Denmark at the invitation of Cathryn Craig, a Nashville seession singer and artist. That led to the recording of One True Note in Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. On that trip, McDade forged a friend-ship with Davis, a founding member of the genre-busting Amazing Rhythm Aces. Davis, who co-produced LOVE BAYOU with the artist, recruited Aces colleague Burton along with omnipresent keyboard whiz Webb and drummer Owings. the new album, recorded in three days, was "pure magic," McDade says.
"Blues has always been the root of my music, and I believe the South is the spiritual home of my music. The blues, gospel, country, rock 'n' roll - you can hear it all on the record. You can taste it. The players involved play soul music, with the Mississippi runing through their veins."
Highlights abound: the Hammond B3-driven opener, HOUSELIGHTS, in which an old-time vaudevillian reflects on past glories; the bluesy warning ;TWO HOOTS the romantic title song, sweetened by Webb's accordion; the Bo Diddley groove of REPOSSESSED; the countryish lope of PROMISES, the delicate beauty of BYRD; the Dire Straits-flavored SANTA ANA WINDS; the hard-rocking soldiers tribute BLOOD ON A DESERT ROSE, the country waltz THE NIGHT YOU LIT UP THE BLUES.
This isn't your typical Nashville record. And in a youth-obsessed marketplace, Brian McDade's idea of success is modest: play music full time, get his music out into the world, continue writing great songs that will be covered by other artists. "It's taken me 25 years to get this far," he says. "My work has been carved out of stone and hard graft. But I believe there is room for a mature artist whose songs can touch people. People need my songs like they needed Hank Williams' songs."