Photo by By Bruce Newman
George McConnell has bounced between bands for years, settling on “white-guys blues” — rock and roll.
George McConnell, who returns to town Saturday for a show at Newby’s near the University of Memphis, has a message for all the kids in college out there.
“Anybody that’s out there reading this: If you’re in school, don’t graduate,” says the Oxford, Mississippi-based singer-songwriter, laughing. “College is the best life in the world.”
Photo by By Bruce Newman
George McConnell has bounced between bands for years, settling on “white-guys blues” — rock and roll.
He is only half joking. Though he graduated from Ole Miss more than 20 years ago with a degree in literature (“I think I was on the six-year plan myself,” he says), McConnell still calls the sleepy college town about 1 1/2 hours south of Memphis home.
“They call it the velvet ditch here,” says McConnell, who used to run a music store in town and currently lives a block-and-a-half off the historic town square. “You’re down in a ditch and you can’t get out of it but you’re pretty darn comfortable.”
McConnell — still hurting from the memory of a recent Oxford gig where he fell into the drum kit after fans bought him too many drinks of a concoction called “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” — likes the Southern vibe and laid-back, party atmosphere that has led some to dub the town “the Little Easy.” But he particularly feeds off the music, not just the steady, eclectic stream of out-of-towners that a college town of its size attracts but also the homegrown strain.
Surrounded by the sounds of blues, country, soul and rock-and-roll, McConnell has made Oxford the epicenter of his creative life, filling the bars around the historic town square with his own roots rock amalgam. “I’m just really influenced by the Delta blues players,” he says. “And then Booker T. & the MGs are one of my favorite groups. I’m a big fan of Stax in particular.”
McConnell first arrived in Oxford in 1981 as an undergraduate from Vicksburg who had gotten the music jones a few years earlier when he visited area music halls and juke joints while working on a beer delivery truck. A few years later, McConnell joined the Oxford band Beanland.
Following the breakup of that band in 1993, McConnell took a yearlong voyage around the world before returning to Oxford, where he joined the roots rock band the Kudzu Kings. That band stayed together for nine years and produced two well-regarded discs before dismantling in 2003.
From the Kings, McConnell segued into a notorious stint with his former fellow Southern jam band compatriots Widespread Panic, who had since become one of the biggest touring bands in the country. Reuniting with his old Beanland bandmate JoJo Hermann, McConnell was tapped to replace Widespread’s founding guitarist Mike Houser, first as a stand-in while Houser battled pancreatic cancer and then, following his death in August 2002, as a permanent member of the band. But fans didn’t respond well to McConnell, whose playing style was very different from Houser’s.
“I had a great time despite what a lot of people think,” says McConnell, who reportedly endured jeers, hate mail and even death threats from fans before leaving the band in 2006. “I had so much damn fun traveling the country. … My succinct way of putting it is, I got hired and fired for playing like I do.”
Back in Oxford, McConnell has hunkered down with a new band, the Nonchalants, featuring ex-Kudzu King Max Williams on guitar, Kenny Graeber on drums and Tommy Turan on bass. And he’s been writing prolifically. Last year, he released through his Web site Singles Only, a compilation of a series of digital singles, which are mp3s paired up in a manner that recalls old 45 rpm vinyl records.
“A lot of people today aren’t familiar with vinyl anymore, so a lot of people are like, ‘What’s a 45?’” says McConnell of his unique distribution scheme. “I remember that was so much fun, going to the record store to buy your one song, and you flipped it over and there was a whole other song.”
McConnell plans to repeat the formula for the new batch of recordings he’s wrapping up now.
“It’ll be like the last record in that we had a punk metal song on there, a country song on there. It’ll be eclectic,” he says. “A lot of my territory that I fall into is mostly blues-oriented stuff. Luther Dickinson one time said that when white guys play the blues it turns into rock and roll. So really I just play rock and roll.”
George McConnell & the Nonchalants
Saturday at Newby’s, 539 S. Highland. Doors open at 8 p.m. Music starts at 9 p.m. Cover: $5. For more information, call 452-8408 or visit newbysmemphis.com.
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