Brian MacDonald Finally Gets His Due

Almost exactly two years ago now, I found myself in Marlboro, CT, home of the now-defunct Pine Needles cafe. I was attending the show that would become the material for my third-ever Local Motion column.

Wait -- before I continue, you NEED to see this fuckin' stuffed moose head they had on the wall in this place.

I mean, look at that! 100% of the moose, 0% of the old boys club elitism! Who else has that? SUCH a bummer that it closed.

Anyway, so I'm at Pine Needles, hanging out, and seeing this guy Brian MacDonald for the first time. And this dude -- to hear his voice is to be instantly bowled over. He has a beautiful baritone. I was just astounded. He ran down Dylan and Warren Zevon covers with such reverence and integrity; he had originals that ran the gamut from wacky tunes about getting old to love songs to wondering where the hell your life is at in the middle of the night.

After his set, I talk to him for a good long time. Turns out he's already read my column (!!!) and he chats with me about my predecessors (Tom Pizzola, India Blue, Jayne Keedle, others I can't even remember -- homeboy's been on the scene for a long time). We had a great conversation.

Well, turns out that Bri was gigging something like 300 nights a year -- and, y'know, no insult to him or anything, but he's not exactly a young whippersnapper no more, so I'm just amazed at the work he puts in. And he's just released this album called Midnight in Nowhere (get it on CDBaby) that's doing respectably well, but seems to be getting more attention in random European countries than here in the states.

If there's anyone who was going to be able to gracefully continue doing all that heavy gigging and songcrafting into their old age -- whether or not they got their due -- it was Bri. Luckily, now he doesn't have to.

He called to tell me about some good news. A couple months ago, he was coming off of a previous night's lackluster gig when he got a phone call from his longtime producer, Rick Jarrard. Rick's Nashville-based song publishing company has been taking off of late.

"You sick of gigging, Bri?" asked Rick.

"Well, yeah, I kinda am. I had a gig that I just kinda ... got through last night."

"Well, you don't have to gig any more. I wanna take you on as a salaried songwriter."

When Brian got off the phone with Rick, he sat down right where he was -- which happened to be a Stop and Shop parking lot -- and called all of the venues where he had upcoming gigs. He politely cancelled them all. As he explained to me, "pretend you work at McDonald's. You're not ashamed, but you have to pay the bills, you have to feed your family, so that's what you do. Now imagine it's the middle of the lunch hour rush. Someone walks in and says, 'I wanna give you the job of your dreams. Here.' How long would it take you to take off your apron?"

Congratulations, Brian. I've never looked so forward to not seeing someone play live.