Having spent his musical adolescence in Pennsylvania playing in punk rock bands, Brian McGee is not the most natural figurehead for a movement of new Americana rock. But after living in Western North Carolina for the last ten years and absorbing the sounds and culture of the region, McGee has milled a new angle into his songwriting palette and taken to fusing his punk rock heritage to raw country sounds. Once it became obvious to him that Iggy Pop and The Carter Family played the same three chords, McGee was off and running.
In June of 2011, Brian received a phone call asking his old punk band Plow United to re-unite for Riot Fest East in Philadelphia. Brian along with fellow band mates, Sean Rule and Joel Tannenbaum, jumped at the chance to play together for the first time in thirteen years. To this day, Riot Fest East was the biggest show Plow United ever played. And while getting the details together for Riot Fest East, the band released Sleepwalk: A Retrospective on Paper + Plastick out of Gainesville, FL. The three members of Plow United are currently writing new songs for an album that will be recorded and released in 2012.
The Taking or The Leaving, Brian McGee's raucous and heartfelt sophomore LP was released in October 2010. This album hearkens back to a time in musical history when the blues, R&B, and country genres were being bent into rock and roll. He taps this moment with a sharp, modern awareness,that allows him to tell new stories, void of clichés. Listeners familiar with 2008’s eponymous release Brian McGee & The Hollow Speed, will still hear McGee’s familiar vocal style, oft-described as howling and whiskey soaked, raw and vulnerable. But on this record, the guitars are louder, the singing is stronger and the fiddles and banjos are traded for pedal steel and Hammond B-3 organ.
The tunes on this record swerve through many of life’s avenues and range from revved up Buddy Holly romps like “Hold Sway,” which takes a frank and positive look at desperation, to ballads with a rockabilly and
swing backbeat like “Let’s Bleed,” “First Kiss,” and “Walking Back To Love” --songs about love, getting clean and celebrating new beginnings. And of course, the bright spots don’t come without a little darkness. On “The Great Unknown” and “When My Time Comes,” he tells stories of people taking their fate into their own hands, no matter what the outcome.
The Taking Or The Leaving was produced by Brian McGee as well as Pete James of The Honeycutters. In addition to lending a hand in pre-production, James also played lead guitar on the album. Recorded at Echo Mountain studios in Asheville, NC (which has housed bands such as Band of Horses, The Avett Brothers' and the Smashing Pumpkins), this album was executed by a handful of world-class musicians and is chock-full of Appalachia guest stars including Sam Quinn of the everybodyfields / Sam Quinn + Japan Ten (on “The Fire”), Mary Ellen Bush of Ménage (on “Here I Am” and “First Kiss”), and Amanda Platt of The Honeycutters (on “Cortona”).
In April of 2011, McGee ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to release The Taking Or The Leaving in a limited edition vinyl pressing of 500 records. The package comes with a download card for complete album, lyric sheet, and colored vinyl. Each record is individually numbered and available through the online store.