John McFee (Doobies/Southern Pacific/Clover,etc) new song

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 7 Nov 2019 8:03 am

Who whoulda thunk it

Take a listen. ShoBud Professional 8/2.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 7 Nov 2019 10:20 am

Lee Warren · Post by **Lee Warren** » 7 Nov 2019 2:55 pm

John McFee’s playing was an early inspiration to me, from his pedal steel and guitar work with Elvis Costello.
This is a bit of a departure from that, but he played on the Elvis stuff more than 30 years ago.
I believe he also played the beautiful guitar on ECs song ‘Alison’.
Hope to meet him down the road, and shake his hand.

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 7 Nov 2019 6:43 pm

Wicked cool. Didn't know he was a steel player, much less at this level. Amazing stuff.

Dennis Olearchik · Post by **Dennis Olearchik** » 8 Nov 2019 8:19 am

It’s different than trad psg and I like it.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 8 Nov 2019 8:25 am

He is a hoss! Just a few years back, Music City Roots did a DB special with a lot of special guests. Its probably on youtube somewhere.

John played just about everything with strings. Dobro, slide, lap style, bottleneck, overhand bottleneck, ETS pedal steel, maybe std. guitar...I've forgotten exactly...but it was an eyeopener for me. I had no idea.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 9 Nov 2019 9:22 am

Kind of sounds like the steel was fed into a vst synth and then spit back out... or maybe triggering a soft-synth that's doubling it? Can't tell exactly what I'm hearing but I like it.

Joe Goldmark · Post by **Joe Goldmark** » 10 Nov 2019 5:15 pm

John is a killer! I was very fortunate to feature him on my "Seducing The 60's" CD. He mostly plays guitar but also takes a great steel break on "The Kids Are Alright."

Jim, where did that cut come from?

Mike Daly, you'd get a kick out of this!

Joe

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 10 Nov 2019 11:20 pm

John sent the track to me as I restored a Professional for him and he used it on that cut- 8/2

Duane Becker · Post by **Duane Becker** » 12 Nov 2019 8:13 am

John McFee's playing is amazing! I recently found how much so when I tried to copy is parts for a local band I play with. Song is South Side Midnight Lady: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt7kEqWlSyc

Licks and fills are not that hard, but the execution of them and his style are very hard to copy. Reminds me of trying to copy Emmons' stuff.

Lance Clifford · Post by **Lance Clifford** » 12 Nov 2019 10:22 am

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 12 Nov 2019 12:29 pm

He's also an iincredibly humble and nice man. Actually met him in the seventies when he was touring with Clover. Been lucky to have stayed in touch all of these years.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 3 Feb 2020 3:04 am

An interview with him (over 42 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoJPTgpmigs

Dennis Lee · Post by **Dennis Lee** » 4 Feb 2020 8:27 am

My kind of musician, extremely talented, successful, but never lost sight of his origins. He remains humble, grounded, and is not afraid to share that he is still in awe of others.

Thomas Stone · Post by **Thomas Stone** » 4 Feb 2020 2:12 pm

Jerry Overstreet wrote:John played just about everything with strings. Dobro, slide, lap style, bottleneck, overhand bottleneck, ETS pedal steel, maybe std. guitar...I've forgotten exactly...

You forgot fiddle

One of my all-time favorite musicians, and now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 4 Feb 2020 10:18 pm

The stuff he did while in the Doobie Brothers is enough to cement his increadible talent!
Doobie Brothers Live at Wolf Trap South City Midnight Lady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avltgdz ... e=youtu.be

Jack Stanton · Post by **Jack Stanton** » 5 Feb 2020 5:04 am

Very cool! The twin parts remind me of some of the old Crawford/Hicks arrangements.

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 5 Feb 2020 5:14 am

always loved what John played on this Grateful Dead tune: https://youtu.be/IFSnOZy955U

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 5 Feb 2020 11:44 am

The early years. With David Wiffen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKmINbvZnqk

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 5 Feb 2020 12:41 pm

I met him at a post-concert meet and greet at the Kern County Fair (in McBakersfield, coincidentally) when he was with SP and I was playing the beer garden gig. He signed my guitar

!! The ink wore off by the end of our run

Good to know he’s still out there killin it. This is a really cool tune. Makes me think of the Road Runner

Jim Pitman · Post by **Jim Pitman** » 7 Feb 2020 11:04 am

Wow love it!
But this brings up a point.
With that much talent, how is it that he didn't play much steel with the Doobies or Southern Pacific?
I'll take a stab at it: Most fellow band mate rockers and producers were afraid it would make the song sound country.
I get this from some of the local folks I play with now and then even though I spent a couple years avoiding playing the major 3rd when I was in an R+B band. Comments like "We don't want to sound too country", or "most people don't like the Winy stuff".
PSG was always so pigeon-holed during the rock and roll hay-day which makes me sad.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 7 Feb 2020 12:25 pm

I think I can answer that at least partially, Jim. John McFee did track quite a bit of steel on the first SP album, pedal and non-pedal (solo on Reno Bound!). But he was mainly the lead guitarist for the group, and while his steel playing was excellent, his guitar playing was iconic and integral to the material. When the lead vocalist left the band, Mr. McFee took over with most of the vocal leads, which made sitting down at the steel kind of awkward. I can’t speak to the lack of steel on Doob tunes, but Skunk would have been available for that duty too.

Jim Pitman · Post by **Jim Pitman** » 7 Feb 2020 12:53 pm

Yes Fred, is logical. Skunk, there's another rocker/sleeper pedal steel player. I love his sound on Steely Dan's Brooklyn.

John Goux · Post by **John Goux** » 22 Feb 2020 10:50 pm

That’s a very impressive piece of music. The tone is so unusual, I can’t tell if I’m hearing steel, electric guitar or synth. Or bits of each. If that is all steel, even more impressive.
John

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 23 Feb 2020 5:40 am

Thanks for posting, I too love the song, the stuff I love to hear.