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Breaking News:
January 1, 2006:
Production Services now available
April 27, 2005: Hartford Advocate writes reviews about Brian MacDonald and his great new CD; Midnight Xpresso Tour
Read article: "In the Studio"
Read article: "Brass Balls Are Best"
News Archive:
MacDonald flies to Los Angeles to finish vocals on new CD. Los Angeles, CA. In late September Brian MacDonald was busy tracking the lead vocals on his upcoming CD. MacDonald signed a publishing,
recording and management deal with Grammy Award winning producer Rick Jarrard. "Just listen to that voice'" said Jarrard during a take in his studio tucked away in the hills of California. Jarrard plans on spending the month of October mixing the album to perfection.
Steve Sloat from SkyTranz Entertainment flew out for the recording session to begin discussions for directing the upcoming music videos from the CD. "This music on this CD is very visual to begin with," said Sloat. "Rick has produced a very cinematic approach to Brian's music. I plan on conveying that cinematic vision to the videos."
Jarrard and MacDonald completed the sessions in less than a week. MacDonald is already receiving great reviews both here and abroad, and has numerous radio stations playing and promoting his music. Rick is credited with his unique ability to discover and produce artists with longevity. Artists such as Jefferson Airplane, Nilsson, Jose Feliciano, and Michael MacDonald have experienced first hand Jarrard's hit making abilities. "Brian MacDonald fills the bill," Jarrard is quoted saying.
The new CD is being mixed and mastered for early 2003 national release.
For a copy of the video or press kit email:
Brian MacDonald stepped into the dim spotlight, opened his guitar case, plugged in a couple cords, and after doing a quick sound check, introduced himself to an audience, which was more numerous than the available chairs. He was dressed in blue jeans and a white shirt, unbuttoned at the neck to reveal two gold chains. Gold rings decorated his fingers, and flashed in the dim lights as he strummed his black guitar.
From his impeccable, yet simple dress to his comfort on stage, to his quick set-up, MacDonald is the portrait of the professional musician. He marks the beginning of his music career 30 years ago, when he started supporting himself by making music. He said he played in bands in high school, then, after traveling the country for two years, settled in California to become a serious musician.
"I've been around," he said before he started to play, "I've been doing this for a long time."
MacDonald played songs from his first solo CD, Midnight in Nowhere, released in July 2000, which is a collection of the stories being told in a bar from midnight until three in the morning.
He started the night out with the title song by inviting everyone to close their eyes and picture a night club or bar. He said he wrote "Midnight in Nowhere" while sitting at a bar in some lonesome town at midnight.
"Someone asked what time it was and I answered 'Midnight in nowhere,' then the song wrote itself," MacDonald explained in an interview before the show. "Sometimes you say things, sometimes you hear others say them," he said. The song tells the stories of things everybody feels, he said, "It's magic. We all feel the same things."
"Lonesome moon shine my way home
I'm tired of spending all this time alone
I want to see my darling tonight
she makes my soul shine bright.
midnight in nowhere
could be a million towns.
Midnight in nowhere,
and I'm closing it down.
Midnight in nowhere,
could be a million towns,
and I'm closing it down."
The other songs on the CD include those with titles like "A heart like yours," "A man in love," "Dreams about you," and "Work," which MacDonald said is for everyone who hates their jobs:
"I wake up in the morning and I punch the clock, no matter what I do it just don't stop...
Gotta work all day, work all night,
money don't seem to work out right
Work until it makes no sense.
Work until you become a past tense."
And another of the songs, "Money, Honey," is about yet another of those universal problems, money, MacDonald said.
"After one bite of the apple,
Eve was needing something more than Adam could offer.
It was money, honey, that's the bottom line..."
MacDonald said he wants his songs to be about something. "Life is short and you can't get any of it back," he said. "I want you to sit down for four minutes, that you'll never get back, and listen, and I'm asking, 'Is it worth taking someone's time?'" He answered his own question with a desire to connect deeply with his audience - an audience he describes as "those who are discerning, those who have respect for music." He said there is a lot of aggressive, in-your-face music out there, but his is music that "sits down on the couch next to you. It's for when you have time."
The music itself sounds a little country, a little blues, and MacDonald claims he is influenced from all over the music spectrum. He cites as his favorite musicians the Beatles, The Temptations, The Eagles and Jackson Browne.
MacDonald's melodies are complex and strike a chord in the heart. But the lyrics hit even deeper. He said he sings about his own feelings, but that someone out there knows exactly what it feels like. "I can't be the only one this has ever happened to," he said. "The more personal I get the more universal the appeal is."
While MacDonald performed many of his songs in a mellow, rhythm and blues mood, he chose to pick up the tempo with "Mid-life Mambo," a song he wrote on his fortieth birthday, he said, when he thought he was really old. And, he continued, "because to survive in the songwriting business, you have to have a dance song."
"There was a time when it was black and white.
I could work all day and dance all night...
Got the peddle to the metal, but the car don't go,
dancin' the mid-life mambo.
The mind say yes, but the body say no. Welcome to the mid-life mambo."
MacDonald ended his neatly-packaged set with "One song for me…:"
"I need four walls around me to hold my life to keep me from going astray,
a honky tonk angel to hold me tight, keep me from drifting away..."
(Bartender’s Blues) copyright George Jones.
Then he drifted off the stage just as quickly as he'd stepped on.
MacDonald is working on his second CD, which he will release in late Spring, 2002.
To view the video go to the gallery page
