Interview - 15 Questions For Mighty Sam McClain
When Mighty Sam released his album "One More Bridge To Cross" he described it as probably the high point of his career. Pleased to be in control of the whole thing - producer, writer, in the studio from beginning to end and with his own label and publishing company. As Sam says, "the buck stops here". For Sam this "new beginning" was a new dawn on his career following his decision to take complete control over his operation.
In a wide ranging interview with the Primer, Sam talks about the highs and lows of his recording career, the good and bad times in his life, and his delight with the way the album turned out.
If it's OK, I'd like to start by going way back to the beginning - in what way did your upbringing shape your musical attitudes?
My mother had a gospel group and I started singing with my mother when I was 5 years old. She put me out front one Sunday and I sang the song 'On The Battlefield, Working For The Lord' - people shouted and fainted and I was only 5 and I thought they were dying - at that age I was scared of dead people! But then I heard people applauding and I was hooked from then on, got real excited about performing. So I started singing very early and I was definitely shaped by that - I've been singing as long as I can remember.
|
Well, we didn't go to cut 'Sweet Dreams'. Don and I got together to cut a couple of other tracks, including 'Fannie Mae' and 'Georgia Pine'. When we got to Muscle Shoals, we recorded with Rick Hall in Fame Studios and Dan Penn came in and mentioned 'Sweet Dreams' to us - I didn't especially like it, but Don did........and I wasn't about to ripple the water at my first real recordings. After we finished, we found it had been recorded and released by somebody else (Tommy McLain's 3 million selling swamp pop version) and I was devastated - I thought my career was over before it had begun. But it worked out OK and I went from standing on the street corner to the Apollo Theatre. But my career tumbled after that, after 'Sweet Dreams' nothing really happened for me.....
In the past you've described a little of those dark times from the 1970s onwards - from "singing at the Apollo Theatre to eating out of garbage cans". How did you keep it together through those days?
Well, you're right, I went from the Apollo to eating out of garbage cans, and I was drinking heavy then so it was a double edged sword. It wasn't really a case of me keeping it together, more God kept it together for me. God gave me the voice, I never had any schooling or training. God was taking care of me when I didn't have sense enough to take care of myself. Since then my faith has grown because I look back in retrospect and realise God had his hand over me and on me. That's how I made it then and that's how I make it now.
Most accounts of your comeback in the mid 1980s credit the Neville Brothers with helping to revive your career.....
I used to live with Art Neville and I know the Neville Brothers. So they helped a lot in getting me back on the road but not so much in the musical sense. My comeback really started with a record I cut on Carlo Ditta's small Orleans label down in New Orleans and then when I got a call from Japan and did a live record over there. So the Nevilles befriended me and I'm very thankful for the part they played in my life
In 1989, you had a chance to go to Japan and record a live album - you had Bobby Bland's guitarist Wayne Bennett with you which must have been a great experience.
Yeah, well when I got the chance to go to Japan, when that happened, I was sleeping on the floor at Art Neville's home. There was nothing going on in my life and I got this letter from Japan out of nowhere and just like that it changed things. So I'm well aware of how a phone call or a letter can turn your life around. And they asked me to bring Wayne Bennett with me and that was a great experience. I've been a fan of Bobby Bland all my life and to see Wayne Bennett on the same stage as me after watching him play with Bobby was breathtaking - and we became firm friends as well. And now Bobby and I are becoming friends. as well.
|
He is one of my biggest influences, no question and he's a very nice man as well, very warm. On the new album we cut a couple of songs that were meant for him but Bobby and his production team turned them down for whatever reason and they got passed on to me. So in a way my recordings of the songs are a tribute to him. He has been and always will be a great influence on my life. As a matter of fact, we're hoping to meet up when he comes over to Boston in the next few weeks or so...
Many critics have attempted to classify your style. How would you sum it up and who would you consider the greatest influences on your singing?
I guess I'm a bit of a mixture and I come out sounding like Mighty Sam! I tried to sing like Bobby for years, I really tried! I really thought I sounded like him and I told him when we met, which he thought was really funny. Little Willie John was a big influence and I tried to sound a little like B.B. King at one time too - I tried his falsetto but I guess I just wasn't a falsetto person! Al Green was an influence and I still love Al Green today. But Bobby is the biggest influence on my music, no question....
Your faith is clearly central to your life and music. Is it difficult sometimes to reconcile your faith to some of the excesses of today's commercial music industry?
Oh, most definitely, but I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and waiting for God to open up the doors. I keep doing my part and as I speak doors are starting to open in the most unexpected places. Your music can wind up in the strangest places. David Kelly from 20th Century Fox used my song 'New Man In Town' in Ally McBeal, initially for a 30 second slot and wound up using the song in 12 episodes. That's how I know there's a place for this music other than where the "powers that be" say you belong. I hate that categorisation, my music covers a lot of territory
The new album is self-produced and will be released on your own label. Is this a result of unhappiness with previous productions or just a general desire to take more control over your own destiny?
All of the above....I've been very unhappy in the way I've been treated over the years. But I'm thankful too to some degree because without that I wouldn't be having this conversation. All of it played a part and I got a chance to grow and learn from that. It pushed me to take over and try and take more control myself
Tell the Primer a little bit more about some of the material on "One More Bridge To Cross"?
I talked a little about the origin of the album earlier and how we ended up putting the whole thing together ourselves. It was originally going to be called "Most Of All" after the song on the album that I dedicated to my wife Sandra, a tribute to her support and love for both me and my music and career. The song 'Open Up Heaven's Door' came as a result of the 9/11 bombings - I guess it's a prayer, something I wanted to say. It came in an instant, although I couldn't get through it initially because of the emotion involved. A lot of people might call it gospel, which might make it difficult to get mainstream airplay.
I'd like to see the album get heard, just get more visibility for this music generally. I think the material lends itself to radio airplay if it's given the chance. And I'm thankful that I've lived long enough to get to the point where I can make a living doing what I love....
Does it dishearten you that it can seem so difficult for classic blues and soul to get a hearing on modern day radio airplay?
Yeah, it's disheartening to see music get pigeon-holed. I'm very fortunate you guys in Europe are more open to it. It's given me a foundation to build on what I do and now the folks back home are paying more attention
|
It seems you get across your unique message by necessity and you have written a great deal of your own material. Is writing something that has always come naturally?
Well, it hasn't always come natural. It was a lady in New Orleans in 1973 who first said to me 'Sam, why don't you write yourself a song' but I guess I wasn't ready. I had something to write about, but I didn't have the knowledge to go about doing it. It's getting to become more natural, but in the sense that I don't really consider myself a writer, more an open vessel. I just try to let what's supposed to come through me out in the form of a song - I'm just smart enough to listen
It's been said that a story is only a good story if in some way it's your
own story. To what extent are your own songs your story?
Well, because of the way I write, my songs are my life. Sometimes, a song is just a song that I want to hear sung, but 99% of the time the song is part of me. I write what I feel, so my songs are me. It's hard for me to separate my music, my career, from my life. Some people say split your life off, treat your music and your life as different, but that's just not for me. This is it, I'm a singer, a man with a song and that's what I'm gonna do until the day I die....
Your music has always been well received in Europe. Any chance that we'll be seeing you perform in the UK in the not too distant future?
I sure hope so - we're working on a few things right now and it looks like I'm coming to France in May, then coming back to Europe at the end of June and beginning of July for a two week tour. Fritz Jakober has also been in touch about an appearance at the Lucerne Blues Festival in Switzerland. So, we're working on a few things at the moment and we'll let you know....
And finally, when not recording or performing, what has Mighty Sam been listening to over the last 12 months or so?
I've started to listen to a lot of light jazz recently, people I hadn't come across before....I've been listening to a lot of Bernard Allison, I really like him and Johnny Laing has got lots of soul and fire. And of course I'm constantly listening to my buddy Bobby 'Blue' Bland. I enjoy it every time I hear his voice, worrying it might be the last time. But I listen to a lot of things, a little classical, a little country, which has always been an influence on my music, even a little rap.....wherever my mood take me. I guess I don't like to pigeon-hole what I listen to in the same way I don't like to pigeon-hole music generally.....
© The Primer January 2003 - All rights reserved
Leave a comment