That’s how it happened? Well, I’ll Be…
‘The Edwin Influence’
I have been writing this blog for the better part (or worst part) of 20 years now, so occasionally some stories overlap. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Sue me if I go too fast. I know I’ve mentioned Edwin McCain before in my scribblings (in our band there was an inside joke about telling the same stories over and over), but this will be the Alpha to the Omega of the Edwin influence. Or maybe just abridged version because there really is a lot.
Let me go back to go forward. My big brother introduced me to the music of the Police. I can’t thank him enough for that. It shaped so much of who I became and what I wanted to do. We would listen to his cassettes endlessly in his 1968 Mercury Montego (dubbed ‘The Tank’, complete with TANK 7 on his license plate), and hearing those reggae/rock songs while driving around the beach with the windows down was like heaven on earth. Come to think of it, I don’t think he took me to the beach in that car, but just close to the house for errands. Bastard.
Push a little further ahead, and the Police are a part of every bit of my fiber. I can’t sing like Sting, but boy did I try (and occasionally still do). I had someone in 8th grade tell me I would never be Sting because “He is hot and you are not”. Fair point. My first band was a three piece (of course) and the first song we attempted: ‘Roxanne’.
Even to this day my friends send me Police video snippets of quirky interviews or song clips. I gravitate toward Telecasters instead of Strats, and I get really mad when a drummer just walks his way through ‘Message in a Bottle.’ Do I get a favorite track? I dunno – ‘So Lonely’ hit me in a lot of ways, as does ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.’ I can’t say I love everything they did, but it seems each song has a moment, a flash of brilliance that made the Police special.
Edwin McCain hails from Greenville, South Carolina. He was the inspiration for a generation of campfire acoustic guitar players, but what the wanna-bees didn’t have was the voice. Edwin sings to the angels- every time. I’ve heard him on the big stages, casual hotel lobby after parties, and he and I may have sang karaoke late one night in Printer’s Alley. He was in the Southeastern circuit, same as us, albeit one step ahead. We were lucky to cross paths with Edwin in our travels, and cemented our friendships with 5 opening slots for Edwin.
Our band always wanted what everyone else had: the record deal. We thought it would make our problems go away. So we plodded and drove and played and rinsed and repeated 200 times a year to no avail. No one wanted to sign us. Part of me gets it and part of me doesn’t, but that’s a story for another time. We looked up to Edwin for having a record deal (we also liked Hootie and the Blowfish, Dave Matthews, and Sister Hazel for the same reasons) and wanted the same. We even had Edwin’s drummer and guitar player on our Halo album.
We were in Memphis, and I am pretty sure it was the 4th of May for some strange reason. (Quick internet search confirms my intuition.) We were playing at the Hard Rock on Beale St, and about midway through the show, in strolls Edwin. He had just played for 10,000 people on the riverfront for the Memphis in May (Beale St. Music Festival), and at the time had the #5 song in the country with “I’ll Be”. We may have taken a quick set break and talked with him, or he just jumped up on stage. Either way, he stayed on deck for about 45 minutes.
We barreled through songs like ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, ‘Feelin’ Alright (into the theme from ‘The Jeffersons’), and a few others I can’t remember. I think there is a VHS of it somewhere. The beauty of it all is that he just jumped in wherever. He also led us on a journey that became one of our show signatures.
Edwin started on 4 simple chords, and the band jumped into a groove. We had no idea what was happening, but then Edwin started singing ‘No Woman, No Cry’. Cool. We’re down. We threw around some solos, and then in the middle of it all Edwin starts into ‘So Lonely’ over the same progression. Well, dammit, I got THIS.
We were on to something special for sure. It’s not rocket surgery, and we didn’t really invent anything, but it hit on all our points. I think we tried recreating the magic the next night, and I thought I could be Edwin. It was not good. In time, with practice (hear that youngsters?), I was able to get the song in a good place, and you know, it was a lot of fun. It’s a cover, but one of my favorites the band did because it always turned into musical mayhem and bliss at the same time.
A couple of years later we were doing a show together with Edwin(with Sister Hazel on the bill as well), and I had lost my voice. The song mashup we adopted was a show highlight, and we wanted to do the song, so when it was time, out strolled Edwin and led us home once again.
And whatever happened to Edwin? Well, he’s still crushing it on the road. He became a little bit of the wedding balladeer following ‘I’ll Be’ with ‘I Could Not Ask For More’, and has made a very nice career out of it. Don’t think the show is all sleepers, though. His band is great, and they will rock. Edwin and I still cross paths and texts occasionally today.
So thank you Edwin, for decades of friendship, and for showing some unsigned kids a new arrangement. And thank you, fans for bouncing at the right time when we played that song.
And now you know the rest…. of the story.
