This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast More what You Hear
Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. Always love having him on the program, whether
it's talking about the fiftieth anniversary of his number one hit or his exciting new
album. Don McClain joining us now And the name of the album is American
Boys, of which you are one? Are you not? Don McClain,
I am American. I'm an American boy, and I helped create rock and
roll. You sure did, You sure did. And patriotism has always been
kind of an underlying theme in your music. Well, you know, I
think you've got to be proud of yourself, proud of your country. But
I don't think you need to be a big dumb flag waiver either. You
know, you have to be sort of in the middle and be realistic.
And that was always the way it was when I was brought up. Fairness
and good sportsmanship and uh. But now I think it's good for our people
to know that American boys invented rock and roll. We didn't just play it.
This music comes from America, just like the blues and jazz and so
much some of our so many of our great writers. For some reason.
A lot of it comes from the South, and it may have to do
with with the problems the South had and the slavery and who knows what else,
but uh, it's created. And of course the church and harmony and
gospel and everything mixed in. Uh. This is all part of early rock
and roll. And I think of all the black groups too as part of
of this. I don't think. I don't like the term doop, you
know, to me in the still of the night was just rock and roll,
you know, or blue Moon by the Morsels or whatever. I was
chuckling a minute ago when you were talking about the South and the inspiration the
South. I always chuckle at a quote of Sam Houston when it was it
was at the onset of the outbreak of the Civil War, and it was
his advice to the people of the South. And basically you said, you
don't understand the people of the North. They're not as fiery a people as
you, for they live in a cooler climate. Like that had anything to
do with it, But maybe climate does. I don't know. Well,
I can't imagine the North really occupying the South because it's so moist, and
I can't imagine the other way around, with you know, plowing feet of
snow and everything. So it was it was one of those very ugly football
games. Yes, yes, sure, Don McClain. His new album is
American Boys. There's a lot of great titles in here too, and they're
all original Stone Cold, Gangster, Thunderstorm Girl, Gypsy Road. That's right,
they're all new songs, and I do quite a few of them on
stage. I have a really good band that comes from Nowville, led by
Tony Migliore on the piano, and we have twin guitars and bass and drums,
and of course my guitar is wired now and so it's it's a rock
and roll band, you know, when we want it to be. And
also I'll just sing a song with a piano or twin guitars and or just
be solo on guitar. If I do a song like Vincent or something like
that. Yeah, that's that you were acoustic before acoustic was cool. I
love my guitars, you know. And one thing I love about in Nashville
is that everybody there loved the same things I did. They knew how to
harmonize, they knew how to use an acoustic guitar and all this music is
I belong there, and I've recently gotten some wonderful awards. I was given
a star on the Nashville Walk of Stars across from the Country Music Hall of
Fame, and I was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame, which is
me one of the most wonderful things that ever happened, because the people in
that are the ones that really made the music. You know that Jordanaires and
the Crickets and all these different groups that were at the bottom of everything that
I really love, and they thought enough of me to have me in there.
Don McLain with US American Boys is his newest album. It is out
now and I always wanted to ask you about the imagery of your lyrics.
Did you draw inspiration from any of the beat poets of maybe the nineteen fifties
and sixties. You know what happens to me is I see a little movie
in my head and then I write down and I usually sing the first part
of the song right with the lyric into the tape recorder, and then I
add to it until I get a form and then I can write more lyrics.
But I've got the musical form, and I write different lyrics for every
song, Like a little song like Wonderful Baby is not the same as Vincent,
and it's completely different, a different writing style, different musical style.
So that's my thing. That's what I do. And I know that's why
I don't write lots of songs, because they're all really different. But it's
in my head. I can see it. Do you dream in music?
I do. I wake up with melodies in my head, and when i'm
really going good, I'll have a tape recorder by the bed and I'll be
singing into it every morning, something that's come into my dreams and then it
comes into our ears, like American Boys, the new album out from Don
McClain, Grammy Award winning Songwriters Hall of Fame member, BBC Lifetime Achievement Winner
two. I see some of your other albums are in remastering as well,
including and I didn't know this, Don McClain sings Marty Robbins. Were you
a fan huge? I love the singers you know to me, Elvis was
a singer, Orbison was a singer. Marty Robbins was a real singer,
and I really got into his music. And then I decided to do this
album, and I had a friend of mine do the cover whose name was
Thomas b Allen, who is famous in the world of bluegrass for doing a
lot of the flatt and scrugs covers for Columbia Records, and he did a
lot of other Columbia projects as well. Marty Stewart knows him well. He's
put a book out on him, and I think he has a lot of
his work in his museum down there in Mississippi. Marty Stewart a savant on
his own right too. When it comes to the Mandolin American Boys is the
album and Don McLean is the legendary artist that is out now. We'll look
forward to hearing it and to your next pass through Oklahoma. Don McLean,
thank you for having me on your show and best wishes everybody in Oklahoma.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember
to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation