Forrest McCurren’s songs, and their characters, could only come from the Middle of Missouri. Where fertile plains meet the rocky, Ozark hills. Where rivers roll into wide open skies, and Saturday night beer-binging turns into Sunday morning hymn-singing. They are familiar and strange, from the town and the country, looking to get lost and hoping to be found.
On his debut album, Oh Me, Oh My, McCurren is looking back at the hometown he left, the father he lost and all the years between running wild as a kid to running wild as a man. Through the encouragement of a stranger after a show, Forrest made contact with Wes Sharon of 115 Recording in Norman, Oklahoma (The Turnpike Troubadours, John Fullbright, Parker Millsap). Already a fan of Wes’ work, McCurren and Sharon became quick friends over their shared Irish heritage, stories of their grandfathers, decorated youth baseball careers and a belief that songs are the greatest American export. Sharon assembled a group of all-stars to paint a beautiful backdrop to McCurren’s songs including guitarist Ryan Engleman (Turnpike Troubadours and Reckless Kelly), drummer Jimmy Paxson (The Chicks, Stevie Nicks, Ben Harper), and keyboardist Dan Walker (Heart, John Fullbright, Courtney Marie Andrews). Along with Sharon on bass and Margaret McCurren on violin and harmony vocals, the band brings contrasting styles buoyed by groove and grit and anchored in the words McCurren writes. Together they built a spaced-out, blue-skied landscape around Forrest and his raspy-voiced songs and stories.
Alabama-born, Texas-based singer songwriter, Ritch Henderson, sums up McCurren’s debut effort glowingly, “(Oh Me, Oh My) takes listeners on a journey through time and space to a nostalgic existence that we can never go back to, all the while inquiring if it ever really existed in the first place. Forrest’s songs are: brilliant, devastating, beautiful, honest, redemptive, familiar, and unrivaled in their idiosyncrasy. He is crafting an early chapter in a legacy that suggests his heir to the eventual title of “Great American Songwriter”.
https://forrestmccurren.com/
You may also like the following events from Knuckleheads Kansas City:
Also check out other
Music events in Kansas City,
Entertainment events in Kansas City.
