Nashville country artist goes direct to his fans

Jeremy McComb’s 2008 debut, My Side of Town, was the product of serendipitous Nashville connections. Signed to J.P. Williams’ Parallel Entertainment, home of Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy, McComb recorded a debut whose mainstream production was salted with an earthy voice and a couple of terrific songs, including the original “This Town Needs a Bar” and a honky-tonk cover of Bob Dylan and Old Medicine Crow’s “Wagon Wheel.” But when follow-up projects failed to materialize, McComb opted to take an independent route, funding this follow-up through Kickstarter and recording “without the Music Row ass kissing.” He’s fully engaged the direct artist-to-fan model of Internet marketing, performing live shows via Stageit, posting frequent updates and blogs on Twitter and Facebook, and growing his fan base into a social network.

Interestingly, McComb’s self-produced work sounds a lot like his debut. The old-timey banjo leading into the first cut is only a feint, as the album launches into the sort of rocked-up energy you hear in Nashville’s mainstream. McComb distinguishes himself with soulful guitar playing and a voice that resounds with rough-hewn vitality. He has a talent for marrying words to rhythms, enlivening lyrics that lean to the tried-and-true topics of hell raisers, romantic desire, distress and dissolution, and a father’s unconditional love. The album’s more adventurous lyrics include the philosophical “Time” and the self-appraising solo acoustic “Breaking, Folding, Fading” hidden at the end of track seven. As on his debut, McComb proves himself an interesting singer and songwriter, but one whose sound still remains tied to Nashville’s mainstream. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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