McCain tests out some vintage soul and R&B

Friday, July 18, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Edwin McCain is famous for the hit songs ‘‘I’ll Be” and ‘‘I Could Not Ask For More.” E-Mail This Article | Print This Story   If you go Edwin McCain will open for Kenny Loggins on July 24 at Calvert Marine Museum on the pavilion stage as part of the 2008 benefit concert series. McCain begins at 7:30 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $45 and $35; service charges are additional. The museum is at 14150 Solomons Island Road, Solomons. Call 1-800-787-9454. Go to www.calvertmarinemuseum.com.

But, whether you realize it or not, you have heard McCain’s music. It is nearly certain.

In fact, to not hear it would require a pretty major act of isolation: The alt-rocker has two hits — ‘‘I’ll Be” and ‘‘I Could Not Ask For More” — that are played on the radio thousands of times daily and have seen additional airplay on television shows ranging from ‘‘Dawson’s Creek” to ‘‘Dr. Phil.” ‘‘I Could Not Ask For More” has morphed into one of the most widely used wedding songs.

McCain was in his twenties in the 1990s when he wrote the Top 40 hits. In 2008, on the cusp of 40, he likens them to winning lottery tickets.

‘‘For a song like that to just come out of the ether and land in your lap,” he said, musing. ‘‘When I wrote that song I was in a bad spot. It was a Hail Mary I threw up, and the song was more about a prayer than love, but that’s the way people took it.” Not that McCain has any reservations about ‘‘the way people took it,” (although he does seem to have a few bones to pick with big record companies).

McCain, from Greenville, S.C., formed the Edwin McCain band in 1993. After the release of ‘‘Solitude,” McCain was signed by Atlantic Records, for whom he recorded four albums. The first, ‘‘Honor Among Thieves” (1995), included ‘‘I’ll Be.” The third, ‘‘Messenger” (1999), included ‘‘I Could Not Ask for More,” written by Dianne Warren, who had worked with Elton John, Cher and Chicago. Around these songs, meanwhile, are plenty of songs that reflect McCain’s more authentic aesthetic — gritty, Southern rock which, in a sense, also reflects the jaded album titles.

Prior to interviewing McCain I knew only of his hits, and I will be forthright in saying that they left me with something less than a favorable impression. Having now been exposed to his full catalogue, however, I view him in an altogether different — and far more positive — light.

While Atlantic got its chartbuster with ‘‘I Could Not Ask For More,” McCain was displeased with the overall result. He viewed the company’s decision to bring in Warren as evidence that his own songwriting was no longer trusted.

On ‘‘Far From Over,” his last album for Atlantic, McCain has said he created a stripped-down, garage band album which would ensure his dismissal.

In hindsight, the ‘90s might be thought of as the waning years of big record companies. It was a time when companies like Atlantic were shelling out big money to young musicians with the idea of selling lots of records. And while some of this continues today, musicians — in this age of Pro Tools and MySpace — are becoming increasingly independent and self-sufficient.

McCain, on the other hand, is glad he does not have to navigate that world. His place is established. He no longer records for Atlantic.

And he recently had an opportunity to put out an album of vintage R&B and soul covers, ‘‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine” (Saguaro Records), which McCain said he had nothing less than a blast putting together.

Prior to going into the studio, McCain listened to about 300 songs. He would only listen to a fraction of the song, and if it grabbed his attention he would set it aside and not listen to it again for the month before he was slated to enter the studio. McCain did not want to enter a take with more than a ‘‘rough sketch” of the song.

Recording each song in no more than two takes, the band completed the album in 10 days.

The band used the same technique in putting down the previous album, ‘‘Lost in America,” which also features a high-powered mix of Wurlitzer and B3 organs, piano, saxophones and accordion.

‘‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine” includes a fresh take on the classic ‘‘I Can’t Get Next to You” (in which McCain reveals himself as something of a Southern soul man), ‘‘Can I Get a Witness” (vintage R&B with female backup vocals), a funk-laden ‘‘Grits Ain’t Groceries (All Around the World),” the dirty ‘‘Ninety-Nine and a Half” and a wild and loose rendition of ‘‘T.C.B or T.Y.A.”

Reflecting on his years as part of an effort to craft big hits, ‘‘It was fun to explore that,” McCain said. ‘‘My general attitude was we got invited to the basketball court to play ball, so we did, but my roots are in this kind of music.”

You might hear a couple of tunes from ‘‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine” in McCain’s opening set for Kenny Loggins. The bulk of the set, however, will be songs he is better known for.

Perhaps a few hits. But definitely the tunes his fans took the time to know long before I did.