Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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sweetest punch
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Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... b-1338297/

How Elvis Costello Saved Tommy McLain From Playing Casinos
Decades after his version of “Sweet Dreams” made him a brief star, McLain wants back in

For a one-hit-wonder, Tommy McLain admits he has few complaints.

Back in 1966, he’d climbed into the top 15 with a swamp-lounge version of Don Gibson’s “Sweet Dreams,” which showcased the Louisiana native’s tremulous voice. Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe were fans of his work; Joe Strummer cut a cover of “Before I Grow Too Old,” a Fats Domino B-side associated with McLain (Strummer’s version was called “Silver and Gold”). The drugs and alcohol were behind him, and decades later, McLain was gigging regularly in his home state.

“I’ve had a great career, but I was doing a lot of casinos here in Louisiana and I got burned out,” McLain, 82, tells Rolling Stone from his home there. “I was doing ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Matilda’ every night. I wanted to take swamp-pop a little further.”

Help arrived in the form of veteran Louisiana producer, musician, and artist C.C. Adcock — and along the way, Costello, Lowe, and a host of veteran luminaries, including Ivan Neville, Van Dyke Parks, and Texas Tornados organist Augie Meyers. This August, McLain takes another crack at the big time with I Ran Down Every Dream, his first pop album in decades; the title track, a duet and co-write with Costello, has just been released as a preview.

McLain, who calls Costello “a kind-hearted guy,” remembers the British singer and writer coming to see one of his shows years ago and talking up McLain’s vintage gospel album; Costello even joined him on stage. Costello and McLain wound up collaborating on two songs, “My Hidden Heart” and “I Ran Down Every Dream.” The latter, a mournful look back at life’s regrets, began as a McLain song called “That’s My Life” but morphed with Costello’s input. A bit of swamp noir, it showcases McLain’s warm rasp and also features a vocal cameo by Costello. “With Tommy, you are going to hear a man singing from his soul, a beautiful man,” Costello says. “He’s one of the great unsung heroes of American vocalizing, and he still sounds as good as he did when he cut ‘Sweet Dreams’ in 1966.”

Adcock concurs that McLain is “one of the last great voices in American music. Tommy resonates with people. He’s got that thing we all talk about in the music world — when he sings, people understand and feel him.”

A fan of Domino and Little Richard, McLain kicked around in bands and worked as a DJ in Louisiana before his locally recorded version of “Sweet Dreams” — initially a hit for Patsy Cline — became an unlikely smash. Given the British Invasion and folk-rock moments in which it was released, the boy-group pop of “Sweet Dreams” was an anachronistic, croony throwback. But on the pop chart, it wound up placing higher than Cline’s version, or even subsequent renditions by Faron Young, Reba McEntire, and Tammy Wynette. The market for forlorn love songs never went away.

McLain worked on some Dick Clark road shows; on one, a multi-act tour that included the Yardbirds, he recalls seeing Jimmy Page “do strange things with his guitar, playin’ with a fiddle bow.” But McLain admits he quickly fell into the rock & roll lifestyle. Hispanic country kingpin Freddy Fender did well with a version of McLain’s “If You Don’t Love (Why Don’t You Just Leave Me Alone),” but McLain himself struggled to take his career to another level.

In the Seventies, he scored a local hit with “No Tomorrows Now,” formed the Muletrain Band, and even cut a version of Abba’s “Another Town, Another Train.” “I had trouble with that tune,” he recalls. “It took me a while to get into the story of that. But now I love it. It’s like a movie.” But little of it made a dent, and he resigned himself to making a living playing anywhere in his home state that would have him.

Work on I Ran Down Every Dream began four years ago, interrupted by McLain’s heart attack, a pandemic, three hurricanes, and a fire in McLain’s house. All along, McLain kept working on new tunes. (“Son of a bitch kept writing,” cracks Adcock, who had the idea of a new McLain album.) In addition to the two Costello collaborations, the record also includes haunted updates of “Before I Grow Too Old” and “No Tomorrows Now,” along with “Greatest Show on Hurt,” co-written with Lowe. (He and Costello discovered McLain by way of a late Seventies swamp-pop compilation, Another Saturday Night.) “There’s a lot of similarity between pub-rock and swamp-rock,” says Adcock. “They’re for working people who come to dance and have fun after a work day. I think that’s what resonated with those cats.”
McLain will play the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Retrieval in May, followed by a string of Northeast dates with Lowe that will finally see him busting out of Louisiana — and leaving any old habits behind. “It used to be a bottle of whiskey and cocaine, but now it’s all business,” McLain says. “Everyone tries something when they’re young. I’ve been through it, and I came out of it alive. I don’t do that anymore. I changed my life. You young people living wild, you may not get as far as this.”
Last edited by sweetest punch on Tue Apr 19, 2022 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/to ... oc-records

Image

Swamp Pop Legend Tommy McLain To Release First Album in Over Forty Years, I Ran Down Every Dream, August 26 on Yep Roc Records

Produced by C.C. Adcock with Contributions from Fans and Friends Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Augie Meyers, Ivan Neville, Van Dyke Parks, Steve Riley, Warren Storm + More

At 82, McLain is Busier Than Ever with Performances at Jazzfest + Supporting Nick Lowe on Extensive June Tour

On August 26, Yep Roc Records will release I Ran Down Every Dream, the first album in over four decades by swamp pop legend Tommy McLain. Produced by his musical protege C.C. Adcock, the album features thirteen tracks, including ten original songs written or co-written by McLain. I Ran Down Every Dream was recorded in Louisiana, Texas, California, and England, with a similarly disparate group of friends and fans, including Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe (both of whom contribute co-writes), plus Jon Cleary, Denny Freeman, Ed Harcourt, Roy Lowe, Augie Meyers, Ivan Neville, Van Dyke Parks, Mickey Raphael, Steve Riley, Speedy Sparks, Warren Storm and more.

Today, some fifty-six years after his Top 20 Billboard smash “Sweet Dreams” introduced McLain to the world, he has released “I Ran Down Every Dream,” the title track from the new album which was co-written with and features Costello.

Of the track, Costello says:

With Tommy you are going to hear a man singing from his soul, a beautiful man. He’s one of the great unsung heroes of American vocalizing, and he still sounds as good as he did when he cut “Sweet Dreams” in 1966.

Tommy McLain says:

I hope my fans and future fans will enjoy this new track. It's a song about my life, and theirs. The music on this first single after so many years brings me back to my old Swamp Pop hits and days, but it also takes me forward, thanks to the genius that is my good buddy Elvis Costello. He brought me a diamond of a chorus that I'll be damned if ya can't sing along to. I think we're 'bout ready to make swamp popular!

As an album, I Ran Down Every Dream is both a celebration and a requiem. It bookends a career that has seen Tommy scale the upper reaches of the Billboard charts, share the stage with the likes of Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, The Yardbirds and ZZ Top, and become a global ambassador for the swamp pop sound - that singularly affecting combination of rhythm and blues, country and western, gospel, and traditional French Louisiana styles. The album also looks back, with more than a little heartache, in tribute to some of the fellow musical travelers that McLain has lost. Two tracks on the album were written by McLain’s dear friend and Louisiana music royalty Bobby Charles, and it also marks the final sessions for two legendary musicians who died in 2021; Texas guitar slinger Denny Freeman, and Tommy’s close collaborator Warren Storm. For McLain himself, the years-long road to I Ran Down Every Dream was beset by a heart attack, two hurricanes and a house fire. With every obstacle he overcame, McLain's resolve to complete I Ran Down Every Dream grew stronger.

At age 82, McLain is maintaining a busy touring schedule with a full slate of Jazzfest performances and an extensive run supporting Nick Lowe in June. Other performances around the album’s release this summer are also in the works and will be announced soon.

Tommy McLain is perhaps the last great artist from rock ‘n’ roll’s pioneering first generation awaiting rediscovery. The signature swamp pop sound that he helped create spawned multiple national hits in the 1960s and inspired artists like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Little Feat, and Tony Joe White, among others. His best known songs - “Sweet Dreams,” “Before I Grow Too Old” and “Try To Find Another Man” - are to this day considered cornerstones of the genre. He’s been inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame (twice!), earned a gold record for writing “If You Don't Love Me (Why Don't You Just Leave Me Alone)” for Freddy Fender, and even appeared - as himself - in the 1975 Paul Newman thriller The Drowning Pool.

Tommy McLain I Ran Down Every Dream tracklist:
  • No Tomorrows Now
    I Ran Down Every Dream (feat. Elvis Costello)
    I Hope
    Livin’ On The Losin’ End
    The Greatest Show On Hurt
    California (arranged by Van Dyke Parks)
    That’s What Mama Used To Do
    Somebody (feat. Augie Meyers and C.C. Adcock)
    My Hidden Heart
    Stand For Something
    If You Don’t Love Me
    Before I Grow Too Old
    London Too
Tommy McLain Supporting Nick Lowe’s Quality Rock & Roll Revue Starring Los Straitjackets:

June 8 - Memorial Hall OTR - Cincinnati, OH
June 9 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH
June 11 - Buffalo Iron Works - Buffalo, NY
June 14 - Center for the Arts - Homer, NY
June 15 - Colony - Woodstock, NY
June 17 - Musikfest Café - Bethlehem, PA
June 18 - Tarrytown Music Hall - Tarrytown, NY
June 19 - SOPAC - South Orange, NY
June 22 - Landmark on Main Street - Washington, NY
June 23 - The Ardmore Music Hall - Ardmore, PA
June 25 - Narrow Center for the Arts - Fall River, MA
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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https://youtu.be/3nTRk0N1cNw

From last night in Tarrytown, New York. I AM NOW A FAN. This wasn't even the best song of the night. You will be well pleased to see Tommy and C.C. too.
Last edited by bronxapostle on Sun Jun 19, 2022 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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bronxapostle wrote:https://youtu.be/3nTRk0N1cNw

From last night in Tarrytown, New York. I am a fan for life. This wasn't even the best song of the night. You will be well pleased to see Tommy and C.C. too.
Agreed, I really enjoyed his set.
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Here's his opener.... a fan for life of these two from this first song!!!!

https://youtu.be/eVV1CpnxzOM
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Thanks BA. I saw Tommy and CC at Red Rooster Festival here in the East of England last year. Plus CC supported Nick Lowe at Nell’s in London soon afterwards. Excellent and glad they are getting some attention.
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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bronxapostle wrote:Here's his opener.... a fan for life of these two from this first song!!!!

https://youtu.be/eVV1CpnxzOM
I think this was my favorite song in their set, but I'm just a melancholic!
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Glad you enjoyed them here and there ffk and as for melancholia, I am with you NP! Sorry I clipped the first line but glad something told me to film the rest!
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Tommy McLain and producer C.C. Adcock discuss the stories behind each song on I Ran Down Every Dream and what went into the recording sessions, including anecdotes about how Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Van Dyke Parks and more became involved in the album's recording.



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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Noah Bonaparte Pais wrote in The Current on May 18, 2022 about the "return" of Tommy McLain.

The article/interview includes a few references to working with Elvis and their appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Includes this paragraph:

"It was at a 2010 New Orleans House of Blues remembrance for Bobby Charles that McLain first crossed paths with Elvis Costello. “He and I got to talkin’, two Catholic boys,” he says. “Been friends ever since.” (“I tell ya, I learned so much from this man,” Costello will say a little later on the Gentilly mainstage, before the two launch into a scatting duet of Charles’ “Before I Grow Too Old,” a song they first performed together at the House of Blues; McLain also sang it at English chanteuse Lily Allen’s wedding in 2011, accompanied by Adcock’s Lil’ Band o’ Gold.) "

Also includes this photo:
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, May 6, 2022
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, May 6, 2022
2022-05-06 New Orleans photo 01 px red.jpg (53.8 KiB) Viewed 4433 times
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Tommy McLain performed "I Ran Down Every Dream" on The Late Late Show With James Corden with C.C. Adcock singing EC's part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26qB_zTRzKs
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

Post by njbp »

EC is now roughly the same age as Burt B when he (EC) collaborated with BB on PFM. Where are the collaborators for EC who are mid-career/famous/successful who can bring EC to a new /younger demographic? Are they not calling EC? Is he not answering those calls? No disrespect to TM, but this (along with other recent collaborations, eg Mrs Tom Hanks), is just not going to create late stage momentum for Dec.
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Re: Elvis collaborates with Tommy McLain

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Think Spanish Model brought him a lot of coverage in markets he had little coverage previously.
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