ABOUT
The Stranger to be Released November 17th
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The only thing surprising about David B. McLaughlin’s new album, The Stranger, on his own label, That’s Fantastic Entertainment, is how fast it is coming out. His first album, Raise the Dead, came out almost exactly one year prior to the release of The Stranger.
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The project continues the theme of the first, filled with covers of mostly old blues songs, but reworked to have a more up to date style and sound. The Stranger is also more guitar heavy than the first album bringing in a sound that is described on one of the tracks in studio chatter as “chunky and rough.”
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The album puts together the same Nashville crew who made the first one. It is produced by David’s long-time friend, Jeff Quimby, who also plays drums. Stephen Leiweke plays 15 different guitars and also owns Yackland Studios where both projects were recorded. The band is rounded out by Chris Donohue on bass and Phil Madeira on a variety of keyboards as well as slide guitar and even the mellotron. JoAnna Janét returns on background vocals as well as two duets with David. These musicians are Nashville studio mainstays as well as prolific live players who have performed with the likes of Tom Jones, Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Rufus Wainwright, Elvis Costello, Phil Keaggy, Bob Seger, Lainey Wright, and countless others.
The tone is set for the album on the opening track and first single, Stranger Blues, in which David sings raucously, “I’m a stranger here and I just blowed into your town,” following an explosion of music and a guitar hook that is an instant earworm. The album contains songs written by blues icons, Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and more.
One of the most evocative songs on the project is a major overhaul of the Peggy Lee classic, Fever. However, David returns to the original lyrics as recorded by Little Willie Johnson. The song is slowed down in a cinematic and atmospheric blaze featuring the first duet with JoAnna Janét who soars remarkably. The song evokes a passionate love story when sang as a duet. Alternatively, the Jimmy Reed song, Give Up and Let Me Go, finds the two in an argument in which the story is that they clearly want to leave each other.
If they can be called newer songs, the album also features the Bob Dylan classic, Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat, with a drum track that has to be heard to be believed, and the album closer, Take My Love With You, written by well-known Mississippi recording and touring artist, Paul Thorn.
The rest of the project includes blues classics such as Hoochie Coochie Man, Bright Lights, Big City, Milk Cow’s Calf Blues, Blues in the Night, and Roberta which was originally sang by Frankie Ford and also covered by The Animals. There is also a lesser-known gospel song, Don’t Let the Devil Ride, that somehow manages to infuse a Van Halen vibe into it.
The album was put together quickly because everyone involved had so much fun on the first project, they couldn’t wait to get together to do it again. Besides the more guitar-oriented sound of the album, the biggest difference is how David sings. He read a quote shortly before making the album that said, “You are running out of time to be brave.” He is applying that to every area of his life, but specifically to the way he approached this album. “On Raise the Dead, I honestly didn’t know if I could even sing or not. That project gave me the confidence to really go for it on The Stranger. I gave it everything I had, for better or worse.”
The album cover shows an old photograph of a lone man at the edge of the woods looking ominously. David had already picked the album name, but when he found this picture while going through his mother’s things after she died, he thought the man looked like The Stranger. When David looked at the writing on the back of the photograph he had never seen before, he learned it was his great great grandfather. Research on his ancestry found that his name was John Wylie Stephens.
The Stranger comes out November 17th and will be available for digital sales and streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and other digital platforms. There are no plans for any physical releases at this time. The album has a project website with more information and behind the scenes content at www.thatsfantasticentertainment.com.
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2022
McLaughlin Raises the Dead Soon
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Most people were surprised when David B. McLaughlin announced his debut solo album, Raise the Dead, to be released November 11th, on his own label, That’s Fantastic Entertainment. However, after a bit of reflection, it makes sense. Although David, has spent the last twenty-five years working in the corporate world, he has a “past life” as he calls it, as a musician.
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David recently quit his human resources job of almost twenty years to start his own business coaching leaders and organizations on mindfulness and emotional intelligence. That wasn’t the only surprise he had been planning. “I have been wanting to record this album of old blues covers for about three years. Only a handful of people knew I actually started working on it.”
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He planned on recording it in Oklahoma City with people he has worked with in the past but that did not work out. “OKC has incredible musicians, and I was very comfortable working with my friends here. But I kept running into scheduling conflicts. One of my best friends is a producer in Nashville and he encouraged me to go out there and make it. It was exciting to work with him again, so I jumped at the opportunity.”
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The musicians on the album (Phil Madeira, Chris Donahue, Stephen Lieweke, Jeff Quimby, JoAnna Janét) are players who have worked with Tom Jones, Robert Plant, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Rufus Wainwright, Elvis Costello, Phil Keaggy, Bob Seger and countless others. David wanted a band who could play blues in a very rock and roll style and could show out on solos throughout the album. “People take months to make albums. We cut 11 songs in a week. Each track was cut with the full band playing live. We would rehearse a part of the song and record it. We wanted that spontaneous energy. There were some overdubs of extra guitars and various keyboards to layer more sounds but everything was cut live in the studio, often in the first or second take.”
David selected and arranged the songs. They were produced by long-time friend and producer, Jeff Quimby. David and Jeff played in various bands together dating back to when they were seventeen years old. “Jeff is a fantastic drummer and I play bass. I did not play on the album because I wanted to focus on singing and the process. Jeff played drums on most of the songs as well as producing and mixing. It was incredible to be back working with him.”
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The album is titled, Raise the Dead, which David says has a multi-layered meaning. “At it’s fundamental meaning, it is about resurrecting these great, old blues songs. With one exception, all of the original artists of these songs (Lead Belly, Jimmy Reed, Fats Domino, Blind Willie Johnson, Willie Dixon, etc.) are dead. So, I see it as raising these songs from the dead for people who have never heard them. Also, it’s about the style of music. These are blues songs, but this is a rock and roll album. So, it is about raising you from the dead when you listen to it. Finally, I see it as being about this stage of my life. In the last five years I have gone through a lot, kids graduating college, the deaths of both of my parents, as well as a career change. There are some people who might be counting me out for dead. But I’m still here. This album is a marker that there is still life in me. You never know what is coming next.”
David is not trying to kickstart a touring career. “I’m way past that. I had fun when I was young and had hair. I’ve lived in tour buses and played hundreds of shows. I’m over it. I’m a music fan now. I’ve attended almost 750 concerts as a fan. I love to study the history of music. But I love my day job and have a great career. Of course, anyone who is a musician knows it never leaves you. And I could not get this album out of my head. I had to do it. And the studio was always my favorite part of the music business anyway.”
Part of the inspiration for the album came after his father passed away. “Everyone in my family is musical. My brothers and I used to tour together. They are amazing musicians and singers. My dad was also a great singer. He sang in gospel quartets off and on his whole life. He recorded an album when he was in his early 20’s with a quartet called The Eagleaires. When he died, we had a handful of those old vinyl albums around. My kids actually wanted those to listen to because it was their grandpa. I thought about that. Maybe if I record something they will listen to it when I’m dead.”
Raise the Dead comes out November 11th and will be available for digital sales and streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and other digital platforms. There are no plans for any physical releases at this time. The album has a project website with more information and behind the scenes content at www.thatsfantasticentertainment.com.
