BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//com.denhaven2/NONSGML ri_cal gem//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN VERSION:2.0 BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:In a way\, Edwin McCain began sowing the seeds of Mercy Bound \, his tenth album and debut for 429 Records\, seven years ago. The song s comprising Mercy Bound are the fruits of an on-again\, off-again colla boration with fellow singer/songwriter Maia Sharp that began in 2004 wit h their lovely duet &ldquo\;Say Anything.&rdquo\; Since co-writing and t racking that song\, McCain and Sharp have kept up their friendship and c reative partnership. They decided to make Mercy Bound their first full-a lbum collaboration.\nAnd that collaboration has offered McCain\, some 20 years into his career\, a chance to try something new&mdash\;not only w ith someone who&rsquo\;s worked with everyone from the Dixie Chicks to A rt Garfunkel\, but also someone who had an eerie habit of being able to get deep inside his head\, he says with a laugh.\n&ldquo\;As we were mak ing this album\, we wrote together exclusively on a bunch of the tracks\ , and then she threw me a few songs she wrote herself. A lot of the time \, when you go from a female to a male voice\, it doesn&rsquo\;t really work\, but for me\, it was almost like she was watching me on closed cir cuit TV. She would play me a song and it was like\, &lsquo\;Quit watchin g me! You&rsquo\;re freaking me out!&rsquo\;&rdquo\;\nAlong the way\, so me of those songs\, like &ldquo\;Sober\,&rdquo\; changed entirely\, when performed by McCain. &ldquo\;That was a song Maia wrote [with Adrianne Gonzalez] after a conversation with a friend\, who asked her why she was being so grouchy. She said\, &lsquo\;Sorry\, I&rsquo\;m a little sober\ ,&rsquo\; which inspired the chorus of the song. For me&mdash\;and for a lot of other people further down that road&mdash\;that line took on a p retty powerful meaning.&rdquo\;\nLike such McCain signature songs as &ld quo\;3 a.m.&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;I&rsquo\;ll Be\,&rdquo\; the horn- and R hodes piano-tinged tracks comprising the Sharp-produced Mercy Bound are classic Edwin. They&rsquo\;re story songs about lovesick romantics or tr uth seekers stumbling around life trying to make sense of all their good luck\, or of situations gone awry\; pop-tinged sing-alongs written on a coustic guitars jammed with percolating hooks.\nMercy Bound also marks t wo decades since McCain first entered a studio. Raised in Greenville\, S .C.\, on a musical diet of everything from Earth\, Wind &\; Fire to D avid Wilcox\, he recorded his first independent demo in 1991\, issuing h is debut\, Solitude\, two years later. That album led to his 1995 major- label debut\, Honor Among Thieves\, which introduced America to the then -budding Southeastern bar favorite. Songs like &ldquo\;Solitude&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;3 a.m.&rdquo\; remain fan faves and live staples. Two years later\, he broke into the mainstream with the sweeping ballad &ldquo\;I& rsquo\;ll Be\,&rdquo\; from the album Misguided Roses.\nTwo more albums followed for Atlantic (1999&rsquo\;s Messenger and 2001&rsquo\;s Far Fro m Over) before he stepped off the major-label treadmill with 2003&rsquo\ ;s The Austin Sessions. The following year&rsquo\;s Scream &\; Whispe r featured that first collaboration with Sharp. In 2006\, they worked to gether again\, co-writing several of the tracks on that year&rsquo\;s Lo st in America\, which was followed up in 2008 by the covers album Nobody &rsquo\;s Fault but Mine.\nOver two decades\, McCain has morphed into a road warrior\, gigging throughout North America most of each year\, flan ked by his longtime friends and bandmates Craig Shields on saxophone and keyboards\, Larry Chaney one lead guitar\, as well drummer Markeya &ldq uo\;Tez&rdquo\; Sherard and bassist Jason Pomar.\nReflecting on his coll aboration with Sharp on Mercy Bound\, McCain says\, &ldquo\;Sometimes I think your ego tricks you into thinking\, &lsquo\;I have to write everyt hing\,&rsquo\; but\, no\, you don&rsquo\;t have to write everything\, yo u just have to love it.&rdquo\;\nLargely captured in no more than two ta kes\, the songs on Mercy Bound were recorded at at the Lair Studio and S harp&rsquo\;s home studio in Los Angeles\, with some additional tracking done in Greenville\, where McCain lives with his family. Mercy Bound al so features a co-write with Angie Aparo (&ldquo\;Better Story to Tell&rd quo\;). The title track was written by Mark Addison and the guitar-and-v ocals-only closer\, &ldquo\;Lucky One\,&rdquo\; was written by Anders Os borne. It features the guitar talents of McCain&rsquo\;s old friend\, Wa rren Haynes (Allman Bros.\, Gov&rsquo\;t Mule)\, and such lyrics as\, &l dquo\;I can&rsquo\;t explain why I&rsquo\;m here today/I&rsquo\;m just t hankful that I am&hellip\; Every day I wake up to see the sun/I thank Go d that you still think I&rsquo\;m the one.&rdquo\;\n&ldquo\;That song ha s been kind of lost\, says McCain\, &ldquo\;and I want to get it back ou t there so people can hear it. It kind of sums up where I am right now: full of gratitude. The 15-year-old me would have crawled through a river of fire to be the 41-year-old singer/songwriter that I am today\, and I remember that. I am incredibly grateful to be able to do this.&rdquo\;\ nTickets on sale Friday\, March 30 at 12pm. URL:http://glenview.patch.com/events/edwin-mccain-36139c44 SUMMARY:Edwin McCain LOCATION:275 Parkway Dr\, Lincolnshire\, IL 60069: 275 Parkway Dr\, Linco lnshire\, IL END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR