BIOGRAPHY - Edwin McCain, Singer/Songwriter/Guitar


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Producer/Musician/Singer/Songwriter
EDWIN MCCAIN

Edwin McCain is happy. Life’s been good to him and he is very much obliged.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Since his 1993 debut, Edwin McCain has garnered the attention of millions with the top 10 smash "I'll Be," and the Diane Warren-penned top 40 hit "I Could Not Ask For More," and as a tireless troubadour whose rapturous live performances regularly sell-out. In May 2005, Edwin performed "I'll Be" on The Dr. Phil Show, which was voted the "Best Wedding Song" by over 1 million viewers.

The seeds for Edwin McCain's blend of southern soul and acoustic storytelling were planted in Greenville, South Carolina, where he was born and raised, and still resides. In 1993, he formed the Edwin McCain Band and released Solitude. A quartet of albums on Lava/Atlantic Records followed, starting with Honor Among Thieves (1995), the breakthrough album Misguided Roses (1997), which featured "I'll Be," and Messenger (1999), which included "I Could Not Ask for More," also featured in the film Message in a Bottle, that drove Messenger to RIAA Gold Certification. In 2001, Edwin's last recording for Lava/Atlantic, Far From Over, was released. In 2003, McCain teamed with ATC Records to release Austin Sessions, and in the summer of 2004, DRT Entertainment released Scream and Whisper.

In September, 2005, Edwin signed with Vanguard Records! Founded in 1950 by Maynard and Seymour Solomon, Vanguard Records became one of the world's most prestigious folk and blues labels of the '60s, releasing records by such legendary artists as Doc Watson, Joan Baez, The Weavers, Buddy Guy, and Mississippi John Hurt. Purchased by Welk Music Group in 1986, Vanguard continues today to pursue its vision of releasing classic recordings of the past while also signing an eclectic and impressive array of distinctive singer/songwriters. Its current artist roster includes Deana Carter, Hootie & the Blowfish, Blues Traveler, Mindy Smith, Garrison Starr, Carbon Leaf, Patty Larkin, Victor Wooten, BeauSoleil, Ian Tyson, Peter Case, among others.

Edwin and his band mates recently finished recording a new CD that has now been released. Titled, "Lost in America," this new CD is said to be "all rock & no ballads." It's a departure from previous CD's, but then isn't that the mark of a great musician?  His fans love the path he takes us down with each new release... they are NEVER the same, and always exciting and entertaining!  You won't be disappointed!

Thought you might enjoy reading a biography written about Edwin several years back.  Again, I believe this originally appeared on Edwin.com.  Enjoy!

If there is a single pivotal moment in Edwin McCain' career, it probably occurred the morning he left home for college. "My father came running into my room," he recalls, "all outta breath, wearin' just his pajamas - I thought the house was on fire! He said, 'I just had the most horrible nightmare! I dreamed that you had long hair and were driving around in a van, playing music all over the country - it was terrible! Promise me that you will never, ever try to play music for a living!' And I did promise, because I thought I'd go to college and get a job in the real world like everybody else But finally, I just couldn't ignore the music anymore. Otherwise, I knew that I'd wake up one day and say, Man, I really wish I had gone for it!"

The fruits of Edwin's broken promise can be found on his debut Lava/ Atlantic album, HONOR AMONG THIEVES. Produced by Paul Fox (10,000 Maniacs, Victoria Williams, XTC), the songs are centered around McCain's acoustic guitar work and his soulful, soaring voice. Deftly mixing rock, soul, folk, and jazz influences, Edwin's music at once echoes the familiar and charts an original course. He is an evocative story-teller, as exemplified by such songs as "Sorry To A Friend" (about growing older), "3 A M." (about his early days as an acoustic performer), and "Alive' (about a record-store owner who lost his father and wife in the same week, but who found that music gave him the strength to carry on). In addition to Edwin's ace band, the album features guest appearances from horn player Greg Adams (of Tower Of Power fame) and vocalist Rose Stone (formerly of Sly & The Family Stone), as well as Darius Rucker and Mark Bryan, Edwin's old friends from Hootie & The Blowfish, who sing and play (respectively) on the album's debut single, "Solitude"; Darius also appears in the track's companion video.

Although it says "Edwin McCain" on the album cover, make no mistake this is a band, and a seriously talented one at that. Saxman/keyboardist Craig Shields has a degree in saxophone performance from West Virginia University and is a graduate of the prestigious Navy School Of Music. Drummer T.J. Hall comes from a family of drummers and got his Musicians Union card at the ripe old age of 15. He also attended WVU, earning a degree in music education and studying African percussion while playing in loads of different bands, some with Shields. Hall was earning his living as a high school drum teacher until he played just one set with Edwin, who announced, "That's it: you're our new drummer!" Bassist Scott Bannevich began playing professionally at 14 (his first band included ex-Judas Priest/current Fight drummer Scott Travis), and his extensive studio experience includes Edwin's first-ever demo five years ago.

McCain and company have built up a solid fan base during eighteen months of exhaustive touring throughout the Southeast (including 327 gigs in 1994 alone!), along with the release of one independent album. The band's base, when they need one, is Charleston, South Carolina, a sun-kissed port city whose waters have been known to spawn a rare breed of Blowfish � in fact, it was Edwin's month long stint opening up for Hootie earlier this year that brought the 25-year-old to Atlantic's attention.

The two bands go way back. "I first saw them when they were just freshmen (at the University of South Carolina), playing at this little place in Columbia called Muldoon's," Edwin says "In addition to being possibly the nicest guys on the planet, the guys in Hootie have been a phenomenal help to us. There's millions of bands in the Southeast, and they're just one who made it �although they have made it pretty big!'

Raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Edwin's as Southern as Spanish moss, and he speaks in a laid-back, absorbing drawl. He can also talk your ear off without you really noticing it� the sort of guy you'd meet on a train, and before you know it, 200 miles have gone by.

Always attracted to music, he began at an early age with a Jackson 5 album, which led to other Motown records and an obsession with Earth, Wind & Fire. Even then, his strong, soulful voice attracted attention, and "I was in church choirs and operettas and musicals when I was a kid� Oliver!. Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The Boyfriend. At 15, the inevitable adolescent metal urge arose, and with it came the urge to play guitar. He joined his first "awful" band at 11, but his biggest inspiration would come from a local folk singer.

"In high school, I used to go and see this amazing guy named David Wilcox; he'd play acoustic guitar and tell stories, recalls Edwin. "Each song was so beautifully, poetically written, and the soul and emotion in what he was doing were 80 great that he'd literally make people cry. I think he was the one who most inspired me to play music."

Around this time, Edwin cut his first professional demo tape, and Scott Bannevich was called in to play bass. "I had kinda heard about Edwin already, but I hadn't seen him yet, Scott says. "And in walks this little short-haired kid, just outta high school, who could barely play guitar. I looked at him and thought, 'Aw man, here we go, some kid has gotten a thousand dollars for his graduation present.' But once I heard him sing, I was absolutely floored."

Edwin lasted half a semester at the University of South Carolina before "I got kicked out for raisin' too much hell - I streaked across the quad when I was an SAE pledge! - and I just ended up down in Charleston playing music. If I hadn't got kicked out of college, I might not be playing today."

McCain's decision to turn professional came on a family vacation to Colorado, where he met a singer named Shannon Tanner who "made a killing" playing on his own in resort-town bars and restaurants "We took him out to dinner with us, and he was telling my father how lucrative it is, and how much of a career you can have as an acoustic singer. My dad was seeing the practical side of it more and more, and when we were flying back I said to him, I gotta do it.' So I auditioned for Shannon's booking agency and they got me a job in this little beach hut on Hilton Head (Island, South Carolina). I played half originals, half covers - but most of my covers were songs that people had never heard. All the guys in the agency would say, 'You gotta learn James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, Jim Croce, and Crosby Stills & Nash so we can make money on you.' Nothing against those artists, but I'd rather be playing Hendrix or Seal"

Displaying a drive and direction that have set the tone for his career, Edwin started doing his own booking. "I realized that I could make a hundred dollars three times a day. So on Saturdays, I'd play 12-4 at one place, 6-10 at another, and 10:30-1:30 at another - restaurants and bars, any place that had a deck. I would sit out there by the ocean and play eleven shows a week and have the best time. I'd never been independent at all before, and now I had my own apartment, money, a car; I couldn't have been happier. My father-- what could he say?"

Good as things were, Edwin couldn't advance to the next level without a band, and "Going from being solo to having a band, you really sacrifice financial independence. So I sold everything: my home studio, my van, my stereo, my motorcycle, and all these toys I had picked up from playing acoustic, and used that money basically to make payroll. It took a long time to find the right people, but once we did - about a year-and-a-half ago - we went out on the road and just started playing better and better, until we were playing over 300 dates a year. We just gigged relentlessly and had a total devotion to building up a grass roots following and trying to get somewhere."

During this time, McCain recorded his self-released debut album, "SOLITUDE, including six songs which were re-done for "HONOR AMONG THIEVES." Every tune has a story behind it, and if you ask Edwin what it is, you'll probably get an answer that's a lot longer than the song itself "'Sorry To A Friend' is about seeing everybody leave for college and losing their youth. There's a line in it that goes, 'Like a stone in the stream/Life smoothes all your edges until you barely make a ripple anymore.' in some ways, life is the falling away of opportunities, and I just see so many people lose... not their childhood, but their child-ness. I just love that hysterical-laughter side of life that everybody seems to feel they need to repress. It used to really weigh heavy on me, because even in high school I was watching it disappear in people. Everybody in my senior class called me a damn philosopher, a dreamer, but the people I like to hang out with are the dreamers and the thieves."

As with many of the best songwriters and storytellers Edwin's subject matter can come from anywhere, any time. "I don't think that I necessarily write songs as much as I find em, he says "I go looking under rocks and dirty dishes and trashcans and talk to people I've never met before. I never go home on our days off. Wherever our last gig was, I say goodbye to the van and hang out in the town, because that's where the songs are - you've just gotta get out there and dig 'em up. They're in the stories that people tell you. And if I hadn't been out bummin' around, I would never have stumbled into them.

"That's why I like the road, and the lifestyle that comes with it. It can be so bad, y'know, doing what we were doing: playing frat gigs and shitty bars to nobodys being with the same people all the time and all sleeping in one motel room and freezin' our tails off and living like circus freaks, trying to keep a dignity about it. It's so hard, but when it's good, it's so great. It's this wide spectrum of life. there's a lot of people whose spectrum is very narrow: it doesn't get really bad, but it doesn't get that good either. I like for my pendulum to swing as far as it can on both ends. I think it's a bit harder living that way, emotionally and physically, but when it's fun, you appreciate it that much more."

Naturally, that wide spectrum applies to Edwin's songs as well. Despite uplifting melodies and generally cheerful sound, there's usually a sadness lurking beneath the surface. "Well, I think that's the whole point,' he says. "How can you understand lightness if you don't look into the dark? Most of the songs are sad, but with a positive message at the end�just when you think it can't get any worse, there's a ray of sunshine, and that ray is so much more appreciated when it's coming through the darkness"

With a band that tours as much as Edwin's, the songs are likely to change from night to night. "Songs are living entities,' he says. "They're never finished The greatest thing about them is that they can change and grow: they're born and they mature, and they grow old as well. The band takes the songs that I write, and we all bring them to a new level I'm continually impressed with what they do with the material that I bring them � I wouldn't even dream of telling them what to play. If you lock the songs down too tight, it doesn't allow you to have those moments where something magical or unexpected happens.

"That's the greatest thing about playing in a band: the nights when the music's playin' you, and you don't feel like you have any control over it, cause you're a million miles away."