ricky nelson, dr. seuss, twilight zone, LSD, hillbilly music, the ants, stones/kinks/lennon/dylandylandylan, jOHN LeE hOOKER, T Rex, jj cale, tom waits, mark sandman, chris whitley, eric mcfadden, mo rose, john parish, pj harvey
cracking his dad's codes, an adolescent bad haircut, women, an unsuspecting "jambox", sex, low notes, engineer boots, plywood, a reddish light, long loud soundchecks, sugary snaps, gibson's, hand sanded martin's, "the claw", cbg's, a drawbridge, all beautiful losers, misfits, and freaks he has known and loved.
-US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT: 5/25/98
Shake, Rattle, and Please Buy My Product
Madison Avenue pays big bucks for tunes.
By John Marks-
Record company boss Miles Copeland recently invited nearly 100 songwriters to his chateau in the South of France for two weeks of music, foie gras, and fellowship. When songwriter pat mAcdonald showed up for the annual event, he was asked the same old question: Why in the name of Elvis Presley won't he let his songs be used in television commercials?
In 1986, Bausch & Lomb offered mAcdonald $150,000 for the rights to use his Top 40 hit "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" to advertise its Ray-Ban line of sunglasses. But the singer-songwriter, then fronting a band called Timbuk3, said no deal. A few years later, Clairol upped the ante to $450,000 for another of his songs, "Hairstyles and Attitudes." mAcdonald turned that down, too. And last year, the artist rejected a $500,000 offer from fast-food giant McDonald's, once again for "The Future's So Bright." The company hinted that it might go as high as a million, but mAcdonald still wouldn't budge--even though his only permanent address is a rented motel room in Austin, Texas. "I'm constantly feeling like somehow I have to justify my choice to people," says the scruffy, soft-spoken mAcdonald.
Often, the owner of the rights to the song can block its use. The family of Hendrix, for example, closely monitors the licensing of his music, frequently refusing the rights when requests are deemed inappropriate. Some, like mAcdonald, deny use altogether. This was so important to the songwriter that the last time he negotiated his contract with the Copeland Group, he had a clause inserted granting himself the right of refusal--a move that cost him other points in the contract, including money. Other artists are similarly stubborn: Neither Bruce Springsteen nor Paul Simon allows his music to be used in TV commercials.
Sounds Like
-TROUBADOUR OF STOMP-
"I've always been drawn to the lower notes on the guitar," says mAcdonald when questioned about his sound. His trademark is a unique dirtch of dark and murky blues boogie and sex-swamp. He is the epitome of an old school one man show with his custom made boot stomp box, electric semi-hollow guitar and a voice that is at once angelic and evil.
pat has the salt and pause of an elder statesmen when he speaks about his philosophy of music and life. When asked about his denial of over a million dollars in advertising, he makes a point to state that his own opinions on the subject should never condemn anyone else in their choices. "Everyone has to find their comfort zone," he says, "Music adds magic to a product being sold, but for me, the product robs magic from the music. I made a promise to myself a long time ago. It's good to keep promises you make to yourself." -Jason Broome, PERFORMERMAG.COM
About CRACK DANIELS:
What hideous whiskey-soaked love tryst begat the sons of Crack Daniels I fear to imagine. Somewhere in the backwoods of radio free America, their cracklin souls scratched out of the transistor speakers into our generation. Like time-warped Troubadours from a past with talent unlike todays, the sons of Crack Daniels have grown together in a new musical form. Cracker and Blacker create something entirely unique and apart from their own sounds. Together they create something that Morphine, Primus and Hank Williams would all hear in their waking nightmares. -recording artist Adam Mackintosh
MUSICAL SIBLINGS PAY TRIBUTE TO DEAD FATHER
"Pappy liked to do him a little drinkin" says Blacker, the younger of the two half brothers.
Born just days apart, "our time of conception was even closer" says Cracker, "You see ol' daddy Crack, rest his soul, and our mommas did a little partyin one night. and Blacker an' me...well, we're as close to twins as you can get, him bein colored an' all..."
Blacker nods, adding "We never knew pappy, except from one old picture and the stories our mommas tell."
Records show that the senior Daniels died of unknown causes prior to the birth of his sons, and the grief stricken mothers rented a Memphis flat and raised the boys together.
"Our mommas always spoke highly of him," says Cracker, "They say that even though pappy had a reputation for bein wild, he was a good man.
VIDEO COURTESY OF ERIC MCDONALD - Steel Bridge Songfest 4
-PURGATORY HILL- About Purgatory Hill: (pat mAcdonald)
My mother, Heaven Williams (aka: Heaven Hill), rest her soul, was a distiller's daughter, and a tea-totaler all her life. She met my father, a rounder, a drifter, "a good client..." in the burlesque house she managed in Memphis, TN. She gave me the name "Purgatory" because it was, she said, "the nearest thing to Heaven I could find" and handed down the surname "Hill" (her stripper name) because she "liked it."
I suppose i fit the category "one-man band" because i make all the noise of a band (due in large part to the main instrument i play, the Lowebow or "Purgatory Hill Harp" built by the brilliant John Lowe, aka "Johnny Lowebow") on the suggestion of blues great Richard Johnson, and because, despite multiple identities, there's only one of me. I also play harmonica on a neck rack, and a stomp board developed by my mentor pat mAcdonald. (aka "Troubadour of Stomp")
I recently recorded a CD called "The Blues of Sin" that will be out soon. (More details of my life will become available as they're created)
Greetings. MY NAME IS BRUCE REAVES. With my trusty sidekick pat mAcdonald's uneasy blessing, I'VE CREATED THIS PROFILE and have also accepted the position of Sole (soul?) Ringmaster.
Recently, pat and I decided that bad things could happen to both of us if we continue to allow a treasure trove of amazingly cool, unreleased pat mAcdonald recordings to deteriorate in a cold, dark, unhappy place. Okay, I had to beg him to allow me to unlock the vault but eventually he exuberantly proclaimed "ummm... okay". Believe me when I tell you that all the Wisconsin badgering (not to mention a hefty bar tab or two, and several boxes of Snaps) was well worth the effort.
Since that tender, life changing moment I have had the mind blowing pleasure of listening to hours upon hours of rare, unreleased studio and live music created by pat as an overachieving teenager, a cocky pre-Timbuk3 twenty-something Essentialist, an obsessed T3 home studio junkie, a reflective post relationship/post T3 survivor, the "Troubadour Of Stomp" and now as the budding "Purgatory Hill".
I have also witnessed unreleased recorded collaborations with such notable artists as Jackson Browne, Cher (yes, THAT Cher and the songs ROCK), Peter Frampton, Stuart Copeland (drummer for the Police), Imogen Heap, Joe Sumner (son of Sting), Jack Blades (Night Ranger), Jill Sobule, Louise Goffin (daughter of Carole King), Allana Myles (Black Velvet), and others I can't remember right now. (there are tons) How about commissioned songs from Aerosmith, Keith Urban, Pavorati and others? Did you know that Billy Ray Cyrus covered one of pat"s gems? Yep, and I have heard them all and am now convinced that pat is incapable of writing or recording a bad song.
Oh REALLY???... Yeah, that's what I said! Allow me to expound upon your opportunity to put your money where my mouth is...
Several of the rare, unreleased and cool as hell pat mAcdonald songs that will be posted on this music player will be available by visiting www.patmacmusic.com website and clicking on "STORE".
-MUSIC SLATED FOR RELEASE-
Purgatory Hill - Blues Of Sin
pat mAcdonald - Lockbox Babies Volume 1
OTHER REGULAR RELEASE, limited edition, collectable, hard to find, ridiculous to find and somewhat easy to find pat mAcdonald cd's and other merchandise will also be available soon.
YOU MAY QUICKLY, EASILY AND SAFELY ORDER THESE LIMITED EDITION, HARD TO GET CD'S BY GOING TO pat's COOL AS HELL WEBSITE www.patmacmusic.com AND CLICKING ON "STORE".
FAST, FRIENDLY, 1ST CLASS SHIPPING!!
ORDERING OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES: Please email breaves44@sbcglobal.net for a fair shipping rate quote and how to order info.
Listen to 4 musical clips from "in the Red Room" on this myspace player.
-"TROUBADOUR OF STOMP"-
It is a feat to stand out amongst a sea of mediocre singer/songwriters. pat does this easily and even more so when he is sandwiched between standard rock formats. His sound is an easy lay in any environment, finding comfort in a roadhouse or music hall. His lyrics are strong and the feeling comes through beautifully in the nakedness of the solo delivery. There is a scent of the sweet and dangerous, of the sexy and vulnerable. This is no surprise hearing pat talk about music. "Music is ethereal sex, like having sex in the air." Or how he describes the meeting of mind and body in his songwriting. "Songwriting can be consciously putting complex thoughts into metaphor, but if you are not expressing the horny human animal part of you then the thoughts get in the way of the feeling. My favorite music has both going on, when the two parts of human nature find harmony."
The heart stop of a subwoofer aid in the haunt and the "spooky modal mountain melodies" of his music. He spent hours in his room as a teenager listening and playing to John Lee Hooker which is evident in the way he approaches sound and emotion. After seeing mAcdonald solo, it is easy to see how other instruments might just get in the way of the boogie spook and feelings he nails.
Listening to a pat mAcdonald record, it becomes clear he practices what he preaches. His songs get in your head and you are forced to put his record on, not because you can't get it out of your head, but because you ache to hear the real thing again."
Jason Broome, PERFORMERMAG.COM
mAcdonalds ability to craft wry paeans to dislocation and disappointment and put them inside catchy, often upbeat tunes makes him one of rock music's enduring, well-kept secrets. There are very few people out there who have the longevity and still possess the kind of brilliant power he does. -PORTLAND TRIBUNE
By J. W. Mahoney (Washington, DC) - Amazon.com
pat mAcdonald continues to create a deeply uncompromised music out of the idioms of the deadliest swamp blues, strained through a sharply agonized 21st century intelligence. pat can't, won't let go of the pain, until it's time, if that time ever comes. This music was made like a Japanese samurai's sword - heated, bent, and folded, over and over, until it becomes as hard as it is supple. The edge of this music is razor-thin - three revenge songs from a collapsed marriage (according to the liner notes) - but pat mAcdonald had made an album about survival, not defeat.
“Songwriting serves as the prescription of the day for me,” says pat. “It comes from a place of need. When I begin, I ask myself, 'What do I require at this moment? Do I need to relax, feel compassionate, be silly, or express heartbreak or anger?’ If it’s the latter, I try to achieve an alchemy in which those feelings are turned into beauty or humor. My preference is to emerge unbruised."
Well hello there chap. Didn't know about this page. Thank you for the invitation. Hope to see you soon again. If there is anything I can ever do for you feel free to ask. -Hugs. -CC :-)
Your music player isn't showing up so I can't hear the new uploads or download the new free stuff. Please advise. Don't make me fly out to WI and raid your liquor, I mean CD cabinet. I talked with Tiffany at length yesterday and she says she hasn't talked to you in a while. You oughta give her a call and show some loves :D
pat mAcdonald & melaniejane perform "Reset Me Lord" live at the 2008 DEEP BLUES Music & Film Festival www.myspace.com/deepbluesfestival watch it on CUZ-TV www.youtube.com/globalmojo
