EDWIN McCAIN PLAYS AT HORIZON FRIDAY Aug. 15 - 3pm
WASTED WINE PLAYS AT HORIZON SATURDAY Aug.16 - 3pm
It’s an action packed week here at Horizon Records, please read the blog below about Edwin’s new CD then join us on Friday and click over to our Events section and check out an up and coming Greenville force, Wasted Wine - folk music with a definite difference celebrating a new CD also.

Edwin McCain living on Cloud 9 in Soulville
by Regis Behe — Pittsburg TRIBUNE-REVIEW
When Edwin McCain was growing up, he’d often hang out at his cousin’s restaurant in Orangeburg, S.C., where the jukebox always enticed. He tended to gravitate to soul music, and the menu offered songs by Al Green, Wilson Pickett, the Temptations and Aretha Franklin. But there also were relative obscurities, such as Bobby Patterson’s “T.C.B. or T.Y.A.” and “Grits Ain’t Groceries (All Around the World)” by Little Milton. The thing is, McCain didn’t know what was a hit and what wasn’t. They were all huge to him. “There was a lot of interesting stuff,” says McCain. “And it was happy and it was tongue-in-cheek and it really was about riding down the road with the top down.”

McCain’s new release, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” features the Patterson and Milton songs, along with versions of other soul standards, including “Can I Get a Witness,” “I Can’t Get Next to You” and “(I Know) I’m Losing You.” In spirit, the record recalls the Blues Brothers albums of the early 1980s, albeit with better vocals. McCain was recruited for the project by producer Tor Hyams, who has worked with musicians ranging from Lou Rawls to Joan Osborne to Viv Campbell of Def Leppard.

His reaction to Hyams’ request: “Just tell me when and where.” “As a songwriter, I’m always trying to dig up these uncomfortable themes and say things in songs I wouldn’t normally talk about,” McCain says. “Sometimes, that theory, it’s tiresome for people after a while, and it’s tiresome for me to have to constantly be picking at a wound, so to speak. How much belly-button staring can you do in a career? “This whole thing came along at a great time. It was a nice break.” Despite his eagerness to work on the project, there were risks involved. Just how does one attempt to sing “Ain’t Nobody (Gonna Turn Me Around)” when a version by Aretha Franklin is available for comparison? McCain admits that song was not one he especially wanted to try, given its provenance. “We kind of went into this saying, ‘OK, let’s just look at these as songs and what can we do with them and not look at whose songs they are,’” he says. “It became glaringly apparent almost immediately what was working and what wasn’t.”

One of the delights of the album is the guitar work of Steve Cropper, whose compositions “You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me,” “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)” and “Raise Your Hand” are featured on the record. But McCain never had the pleasure of dealing with the legendary guitarist in person; instead, the tracks were sent out and returned with Cropper’s contributions. Which was good enough for McCain. “My thinking was that Steve Cropper has earned the right to work on his own time in his own studio without a bunch of grimy new kids getting up in his grille,” McCain says. “And what was interesting, too, was to hear what he played. You start to realize how many people have listened to him and copied his licks.” McCain, who first came to national prominence a decade ago with the hit single “I’ll Be,” is certain the experience of recording “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” will influence the direction of his next recording. Soul music might not be the most popular of genres, but it looks like it might be his metier for the foreseeable future. “It feels so good to me, landing here,” he says, “and I might be here for a while. It’s kind of like going on vacation in the Bahamas and never leaving. I may be living in Soulville for a while.”

Edwin McCain Plays at Horizon Records in The Bohemian Café for an in-store CD release party Friday August 15 at 3pm. The set will be taped as well for the WNCW-88.7 fm Program Tower of Song which airs and web casts every Tuesday 8pm.

Edwin McCain “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” –BUY IT NOW on CD

Wasted Wine “And When You wake Up” –BUY IT NOW on CD

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