Change is good for guitar player McCullough

Craig Bakay | Jan 17, 2018

“Life’s good,” said guitarist Shawn McCullough in between sets Saturday night at The Crossing Pub in Sharbot Lake, where he and fiddle player Wade Foster played to a sold-out audience that contained more than a few musicians. “I’ve got a good chunk of 2018 booked already with 125 gigs.

“I did just over 200 last year.”

After years of fragile bands and being a chicken-picker for hire, McCullough seems to have settled into the roving troubadour mode.

“I’m honestly enjoying the acoustic thing,” he said. “The biggest worry is trying to find some tasty old covers that haven’t been done to death. I’m looking to bluegrass for a lot of that.”

He’s also doing a lot of songwriting too, looking at an album in the spring.

“I drive home in silence after gigs,” he said. “There’s not much new on country radio I want to listen to these days and so I use that time to write songs. Well, work them out in the car and write them down when I get home.”

He’s got studio time booked in February and while he plans to record all original material this time around, he’s not in any rush and plans to take it one song at a time.

“It’s really tough to release to radio these days,” he said. “So if I can get songs out one at a time, so be it.

But I’m writing some with Wade and I’m really feeling confident about songwriting right now.”

“At the CCMAs after-party, I was backing up Brea Lawrenson in the songwriting circle and she gave me one of her three songs so I did Change.”

McCullough said you work harder as a solo act, likening it to a marathon rather than a sprint, but it has its advantages. “Well, you’re not worried about people making the gig,” he said. “And you can think about the next one more.”

And then there’s the gear thing. “I started having problems with my neck and so you have to adapt,” he said. “So I got a smaller Bose PA and now I can walk through the door carrying all the gear I need.”