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Mash McLain is featured on Outbound Radio |
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 Rising singer-songwriter Mash McLain creates unique and dynamic music drawn from the many fascinating realms from where she springs and within which she lives and creates. Blending some of the finest 1960s musical roots with contemporary inspirations and more, she soars above categorization with her own distinctive blend that also echoes a diverse range of organic reference points. And it takes but a listen to know that someone special and distinctive now emerges onto the national and even international music scene. What you’ll hear on her debut CD, Trail Of Tears, is a new artist forging her own vital identity that is sure to make its mark in years to come. She fashions it out of her dual Jersey Shore and heartland Oklahoma upbringing, the classic 1960s rock on vinyl she grew up on alongside MTV and modern rock, the finest singer-songwriters, a number of years honing her craft in clubs and other venues along the Eastern Seaboard, and much more. Nominated for an Asbury Park Music Award for two years running, Mash McLain is poetry in musical motion towards timelessness as well as emotional and social impact. The six-song EP opens with the naturalistic folk-rock strains of “Down River,” flecked with echoes of such ‘60s icons as Neil Young. She then jumps into a modern musical mode and pressing contemporary global issues on “Mother Mary,” a propulsive slice of funky rocking lit by lilting flute. Ruminations on personal freedom versus conformity form “Guiltless,” shifting from punchy power to string-laced moments of repose. The seasons of passion swirl on “Run Away,” whiffs of desire waft though “Keep Me Stoned,” and her paternal Native-American roots inform the music and metaphorical tale of “Trail Of Tears.” All told, it’s a mesmeric introduction to an artist who stirs the soul, piques the mind, and seduces the body to groove. “I always played music and I always wrote, separately, not realizing that the two would go together,” she explains. A pivotal musical moment came when, at age eight, a neighbor gave Mash his record collection of ‘60s classics by acts like Jimi Hendrix and The Doors as well as the original Woodstock soundtrack album. “I would come home from school and listen to all that old stuff. It just resonated with me, I felt a connection with that whole time.” By 13 she was playing guitar, and at 17 Mash started writing songs. After high school she moved to New York City and joined the all-female band P.I.E. as lead guitarist. The group’s blend of punk, pop, new wave and queercore won them GO Magazine’s Top Music of the Year honors alongside Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang and The Gossip, and the band made a Northeast Corridor splash opening for acts like Le Tigre, the Yeah Yeah, Yeahs, The Gossip and Tracy + The Plastics, playing such top NYC venues as Irving Plaza, CBGB, The Knitting Factory, Luxx and Meow Mix as well as clubs from Boston to Philadelphia, such colleges as Bard and Sarah Lawrence, and some of the hottest parties in the area. But McLain had her sights on creating a broader and deeper brand of music, and moved back seaside to Asbury Park, NJ to strike out on her own. She has built a following with gigs on such famed music stages as The Stone Pony, The Paramount Theater and The Saint and other regional venues and festivals, both solo and backed by a variety of players. As Jersey indie festival and club promoters Phanphest Entertainment notes, “She’s forging her place in Asbury Park history as one of the newest, freshest singer-songwriters on the scene.” And now with Trail Of Tears, McLain takes her music to wider lands like her second home in the Southwest. With a musical breadth that both unites and transcends genres, “I sound like me,” Mash says. And within that, one can hear the elegant sadness of Lucinda Williams, the rhythmic and pointed anti-folk of Ani DiFranco, the widescreen classic Americana of Johnny Cash, inspiration gleaned from timeless singing storytellers like Don McLean, James Taylor, Indigo Girls, Jim Croce, Tracy Chapman and others as well as tinges of diverse rockers from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to Jefferson Airplane to Mike Ness to Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival and a host of others. And she brings to it all an indelible stamp that ultimately marks what she creates as no one other than Mash McLain. “I’m trying to do what I’m supposed to do,” she concludes. “When I think about where my head was at as a kid and how I saw my future, I saw myself playing music. It’s my heart and soul, my release, my connection to the rest of living creatures. Music is something that I’ve done since I was a little person that made me sweat, that made me get closer to spirit. There’s a whole mind/body/sprit connection when you play music. Music is who I am.” |
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