Amy McCarley Launches MECO, Her 3rd Album, February 8, 2019
Co-produced by Kenny Vaughan & George Bradfute
Kenny Vaughan & Chris Scruggs Join McCarley on the Entire Album
Featuring special guests:
Pat Alger, Marty Stuart, Kenny Lovelace, Harry Stinson, and George Bradfute
Available Now To Stream & Purchase→ http://radi.al/MECOAmyMcCarley
HUNTSVILLE, AL — With poignant and thought provoking lyrics, Amy McCarley finds balance in a new perspective with the launch of MECO, her 3rd studio album, out February 8, 2019. After collaborating in writing new songs with Bluebird Cafe round-mate and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer, Pat Alger, McCarley returned to the studio with esteemed colleagues, co-producers Kenny Vaughan & George Bradfute to work on MECO, her highly anticipated follow up to 2014’s Jet Engines. MECO was recorded and mixed by Bradfute in his Tone Chaparral Studios in Madison, Tennessee and mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master Studios in Nashville.
An acronym borrowed from the Space Shuttle program that stands for Main Engine Cut Off, MECO occurred for the shuttle when onboard propulsion systems were disengaged at an altitude where velocity could be maintained by the power of an innate force at work in the universe with periodic adjustments from the vehicle. The album traces McCarley’s experience of what it’s been like leaving life as a NASA contractor to pursue a career in music.
Featuring two of Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives on the entire album including Vaughan on guitar and multi-instrumentalist Chris Scruggs on drums, percussion, bass, and steel guitar; it is only fitting that Harry Stinson joins in on backing vocals on a track and Stuart himself plays mandolin on “Never Can Tell.”
The ten tracks of all original material feature McCarley’s yearning vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica. Alger, who co-wrote half of the songs on MECO says of McCarley, “Super, super intense guitar style. And I was so fascinated by it. Everything she did was real. Super intense. She’s just a different kind of performer.” Alger describes the series of events leading to a co-writing partnership that yielded half the songs on MECO in this video clip → https://youtu.be/oY3V2ZZwTXU
Uniquely relatable, this northern Alabama native’s music is embraced by Americana fans across the country and abroad. Vaughan says, “I think all of her songs come from a personal experience. Each song is about something she’s gone through, which is good because it gives her a little edge on the delivery. The emotional content kinda comes through in there.”
What Folks Are Saying:
“MECO demonstrates beyond doubt that Amy McCarley has established a clear flightpath in Americana music with her blend of country rock sung with a world weariness that immediately brings to mind Lucinda Williams… in MECO she has reached an elevation that deserves a wider acclaim to propel her musical voyage.”
—Americana Music Show, Lyndon Bolton,
Listen in to Lyndon Bolton’s podcast interview with McCarley on Americana Music Show
“Not only can McCarley write songs, sing them and play a mean acoustic guitar, she has an astute sense for musical support…. this is a can’t miss effort.”
—Country Standard Time, Jim Hynes
“With any luck, the record should propel McCarley into the big time at least as quickly as a NASA rocket launches a capsule into space. It combines mainstream accessibility with the sort of authenticity and depth you’d associate with artists like Lucinda Williams.”
—The Morton Report, Jeff Burger
“Marshall Chapman, Lucinda Williams, and (delightfully) Linda McRae come to mind as McCarley utilizes various aspects of her lithe voice, the result entirely her own with soulful shades of her Alabama roots apparent.”
––Fervor Coulee, Donald Teplyske
“It is superb… She possesses a strong and expressive voice that can display presentiment and positivity equally… Vaughan and Bradfute’s production is spot on, never overwhelming the vocal or getting in the way of the song.”
—Lonesome Highway, Stephen Rapid
“… there’s a reflective spirit and emotional honesty that’s very transparent on the listen, as each song is carefully crafted and delivered with a pensive, gorgeous timelessness.”
—Take Effect Reviews, Tom Haugen
More About MECO:
With Scruggs’ wild driving rhythm and Vaughan’s insane blazing solo, the album opens with “A Clue,” a determined revelatory song started in McCarley’s days at NASA. A song of finding strength in perseverance, “Clarksdale Blues” features Bradfute on slide guitar and gives a sense of those wide open blue skies in the Mississippi Delta, the location of the song’s inspiration.
Jerry Lee Lewis band leader, Kenny Lovelace, plays fiddle on the upbeat and breezy tune “Ain’t Life Funny” which muses about how life can tell a joke, “Just when we think that things are humming… Ain’t it funny how it all goes up in smoke.” McCarley says, “He cranks it all up to where either a square dance or hippie jig seem equally appropriate to me.”
Triumphant and joyful, “High Wire” is about survival. McCarley says, “Kenny and Chris brought the emotion in ‘High Wire’ to full impact during the instrumental break right after I sing ‘A little bird perched on a limb / In a wild storm in the wind / I will sway I will bend / With eyes wide open / And drink it in.” Other songs demonstrate a cathartic release in a new perspective such as “Everything Changed,” “Happy,” and “Farewell Paradise.”
Sorrow and gratitude go hand in hand on the dream-like “Days” which features McCarley’s co-writer Pat Alger playing lead acoustic guitar and recalls treasured moments with loved ones which can go by so quickly. “Never Can Tell” is a song about finding meaning amidst uncertainty and “How You Do” is more plaintive in nature.
McCarley’s trajectory is defined by her personal strength as an artist and her ability to learn through the enormous collaborative power of connecting with other stellar talents. She says, “It has taken everything I have plus the guiding unseen hands of time and chance together with support from some incredibly talented generous souls in order for this album to be made and on its way to listeners.”
MECO Track Listing & Credits:
1. A Clue (4:41)*
2. Clarksdale Blues (4:18)*
3. Everything Changed (5:28)
4. High Wire (4:20)
5. Days (3:13)*
6. Never Can Tell (2:39)
7. How You Do (4:32)
8. Happy (4:12)*
9. Ain’t Life Funny (3:04)*
10. Farewell Paradise (3:57)
Amy McCarley — vocals, acoustic guitar (all), harmonica (7)
Kenny Vaughan — electric guitar, acoustic guitar (all)
Chris Scruggs — drums, percussion, and bass (all), steel guitar (5,10), backing vocals (10)
George Bradfute — slide guitar (2), fiddle (6), viola and cello (7), fiddle and mandolin (8)
Pat Alger — acoustic guitar (5)
Marty Stuart — mandolin (6)
Kenny Lovelace — fiddle (9)
Harry Stinson — backing vocals (10)
Producers — Kenny Vaughan & George Bradfute
Audio & mix engineer — George Bradfute (Tone Chaparral)
Mastering engineer — Jim DeMain (Yes Master Studios)
*Indicates a song written by Amy McCarley & Pat Alger
© 2019 McCarley Publishing (BMI) & Algerhythms (ASCAP)
All other songs written by Amy McCarley © 2019 McCarley Publishing
For more information, please visit www.amymccarley.com, www.facebook.com/amymccarleymusic, www.twitter.com/amy_mccarley, www.instagram.com/amymccarleymusic.