NEW ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Jeremy McComb
Robert L. Doerschuk
September 20, 2008
Some people are born to perform but they still need a little nudge toward the spotlight to fulfill that destiny. So it was with 8-year-old Jeremy McComb when his father, a full-time musician, pulled him onstage to sing a chorus of "On the Road Again." By age 17 he was on the road, and at 21 was mixing gigs at night with a day job as music director and on-air personality at KIX-96 (KIXZ) in Spokane, Wash.
Through his radio job, McComb got to know Larry the Cable Guy, who hired him as his tour manager in 2004. That led to an encounter with J. P. Williams, who signed McComb to his company, Parallel Entertainment, and sent him to Spartanburg, S.C., to record his debut album.
Produced by Paul T. Riddle of the original Marshall Tucker Band, My Side of Town showcases McComb's winning ways with a good lyric. His voice invites the listener in, as if to sit and swap a few stories, but can also ratchet up the intensity when the moment demands it.
He tracks subtle shifts of feeling on his first single, "This Town Needs a Bar," written by Liz Rose and Jimmy Yeary, with a weary wisdom that's rare among younger singers. The same quality surfaces in the three songs that bear his solo writing credit, one of which, "You're Killin' Me," bids farewell to whiskey as if it were a lover who had scarred him one time too many. It's clever without being cute, a combination that may be difficult to achieve unless you're from McComb's Side of Town.
2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
Through his radio job, McComb got to know Larry the Cable Guy, who hired him as his tour manager in 2004. That led to an encounter with J. P. Williams, who signed McComb to his company, Parallel Entertainment, and sent him to Spartanburg, S.C., to record his debut album.
Produced by Paul T. Riddle of the original Marshall Tucker Band, My Side of Town showcases McComb's winning ways with a good lyric. His voice invites the listener in, as if to sit and swap a few stories, but can also ratchet up the intensity when the moment demands it.
He tracks subtle shifts of feeling on his first single, "This Town Needs a Bar," written by Liz Rose and Jimmy Yeary, with a weary wisdom that's rare among younger singers. The same quality surfaces in the three songs that bear his solo writing credit, one of which, "You're Killin' Me," bids farewell to whiskey as if it were a lover who had scarred him one time too many. It's clever without being cute, a combination that may be difficult to achieve unless you're from McComb's Side of Town.
2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
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