McCullough to release new CD

Apr 19, 2012

Photo: Shawn McCullough will be releasing his new CD, titled “This is Me” at the Cove in Westport on April 28, 7:30PM-11:00PM.

Anyone familiar with the local music scene likely knows of local guitar guru Shawn McCullough. What they might not know is that he just finished recording a new CD titled "This Is Me", which he will be launching on Saturday April 28 at the Cove in Westport.

Raised in Parham in a musical family, Shawn as a kid used to go to bed on Saturday nights with a kitchen party well underway in his home. It's no wonder he took up the guitar at an early age. He's been playing in bands since he was 20, first with Cam Giroux in the Shawn and Cam Show, which later became The Wanted. In the 1990s Shawn played with the band Shot Gun and was by far the youngest member of the band.

After that he toured Canada with Jason McCoy and the Real McCoys and from 1998 -2001 he played with The Printers Alley.

Shawn now plays exclusively with the four piece band doubleBack who play two very distinctive live shows: one covering old and new country and rock, and the other, a Keith Urban tribute show they call simply “Urban”. The four piece band includes Shawn on guitar and lead vocals, John Wilberforce on guitar and piano, Wade Foster on fiddle, Roch Lafleur on bass and Mark Lemieux on drums.

Shawn’s newest CD titled "This Is Me" features members of doubleBack and it took him two years to complete. “This my first really serious solo project," Shawn said when I interviewed him in Sharbot Lake recently. This CD was a chance for him to focus on and formalize numerous song ideas that have been gathering in his head over the years, and they ended up covering more musical ground than he originally thought. “My intention when I set out was to make an all out country CD but as it turned out the songs kind of took on lives of their own and what I ended up with is a CD with tunes that each have their own individual sound and belong to several different genres." The song "Stay Out of This", for example, has a new country feel and Shawn describes it as “a happy-go-lucky little tune about a guy arguing with his heart about getting it broke.”

"Cloud of Dust", on the other hand, has a definite bluegrass feel. “I recorded it on my first CD but this time around I did it faster and more pumped up and changed one line, which I think made it turn out a lot better.” The CD includes three instrumentals, one a bluegrass tune he describes as “Brad Paisley meets Ricky Scags"`. It's called "I Miss Her But My Aim is Getting Better". On the rock side of things "Bring It Back" has according to Shawn a “Keith Urban-ish feel to it but a bit on the darker side. It was definitely one of the harder songs to put together and it took me two years to finally get it right. I had the verse and chorus but it was missing something and when finally the bridge came to me and I knew I had to put it on the album.”

Listeners can sample some of the songs from "This Is Me" by visiting reverbnation.com under Shawn McCullough or by visiting his Facebook page. The CD was produced by John Wilberforce and recorded at John's own Limerick Roads Studio in Kemptville. Shawn will be joined on stage for the CD release at the Cove with his doubleBack band mates Wade Foster and John Wilberforce. The party takes place on Saturday April 28 from 7:30 –11 p.m. and the $5 cover will benefit the Outdoor Westport Association in memory of “Doc” Jim Halladay, one of the founding members of the Association. The CD will eventually be available on Itunes.