The Lost Hotels Of Paris
A Blesing From My Sixteen Year's Son
Postcard From the Party
Homage to Wang Wei
The Highest Hill of Hope
On 52nd Street
By Small And Small: Midnight To 4 a.m

 

 
  Santa Barbara News Press, Friday May 23 2003 (Page 2 of 2)
 

"Singing For the Sake of the Song" (cont.)


   ... experience of hearing his work performed by talents he respects, such as Bonnie Raitt. "When she did my song," he recalls, "it was overpowering. When I first heard the demo of her doing one of my songs and then hearing her do it live, it was amazing. She's a raw, powerful talent. Don Henley did one hell of a job, too. There's a VH1 show where he did my song and it brought tears to my eyes. Aaron Neville was the first person to record one of my songs, and I'm a big fan of his."
"Those three did a great job. Some of the others didn't. When they don't it's disappointing."
McNally is flexible enough that he appreciates the freshness of hearing artists who "take different turns. Mavis Staples did s song of mine years ago , and she did it differently from me, but she did it in Mussel Shoals and it had so much funk and soul to it. She gave it a lot more soul than I could have. She's Mavis Staples and I'm me. But I like it when they bring something new to it and show me a new way of doing it."
He reflects, "I think I sing other people's songs better than I sing my own, sometimes, because I'm so aware of the construction of it and my personal investment in it that I can't just sing it like a normal song."
Songwriting remains a challenge, though, and not something that McNally shrugs off as a day's work. He cites the example of jazz piano great Bill Evans: "There's a great interview with his brother, where he said he didn't feel that he had it naturally, that it was all developed. For me, it has been all hard work, I've got to say. I wasn't one of those guys who just came out of the box, as a guitar player, singer or writer, and was any good. When you're a teenager, you kind of hope that whatever comes out of you, the world will swoon over. That certainly wasn't the case with me."
"I think my Irish background has a lot to do with the writing thing, the storytelling, but I've had to work really hard at it. Now , I love to write and work at it. I'm a late bloomer. I'm just finding my way with music and writing , and seeing how much there is to it and how beautiful it is."


by Josef Woodard

   
web stats