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Little Rock 3:440:00/3:44
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Oh Me, Oh My 3:040:00/3:04
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With a Little Luck 2:410:00/2:41
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Big Blue Space 4:200:00/4:20
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Denver 4:150:00/4:15
It ain't so old, it ain't so new
I'm running from me and wishing for you
I've learned about loss, I'm looking for love
Tired and wired and can't get enough
There are rivers and roads and the big blue sky
Thunder and lightning on warm summer nights
When I think of you, I laugh and I cry
You're gone but you're with me
Oh Me, Oh My
Forrest McCurren
Forrest McCurren’s songs, and their characters, could only come from the Middle of Missouri. Where fertile plains meet the rocky, Ozark hills. Where rivers roll into wide open skies, and Saturday night beer-binging turns into Sunday morning hymn-singing. They are familiar and strange, from the town and the country, looking to get lost and hoping to be found.
On his debut album, Oh Me, Oh My, McCurren is looking back at the hometown he left, the father he lost and all the years between running wild as a kid to running wild as a man. Through the encouragement of a stranger after a show, Forrest made contact with Wes Sharon of 115 Recording in Norman, Oklahoma (The Turnpike Troubadours, John Fullbright, Parker Millsap). Already a fan of Wes’ work, McCurren and Sharon became quick friends over their shared Irish heritage, stories of their grandfathers, decorated youth baseball careers and a belief that songs are the greatest American export. Sharon assembled a group of all-stars to paint a beautiful backdrop to McCurren’s songs including guitarist Ryan Engleman (Turnpike Troubadours and Reckless Kelly), drummer Jimmy Paxson (The Chicks, Stevie Nicks, Ben Harper), and keyboardist Dan Walker (Heart, John Fullbright, Courtney Marie Andrews). Along with Sharon on bass and Margaret McCurren on violin and harmony vocals, the band brings contrasting styles buoyed by groove and grit and anchored in the words McCurren writes. Together they built a spaced-out, blue-skied landscape around Forrest and his raspy-voiced songs and stories.
Alabama-born, Texas-based singer songwriter, Ritch Henderson, sums up McCurren’s debut effort glowingly, “(Oh Me, Oh My) takes listeners on a journey through time and space to a nostalgic existence that we can never go back to, all the while inquiring if it ever really existed in the first place. Forrest’s songs are: brilliant, devastating, beautiful, honest, redemptive, familiar, and unrivaled in their idiosyncrasy. He is crafting an early chapter in a legacy that suggests his heir to the eventual title of “Great American Songwriter”.
“There’s no mistaking that Forrest McCurren falls right in line with the greats like John Prine and Terry Allen — with gentle cautious tales about real folks delivered in “around the campfire” style.” - Melissa Clarke,
“Missouri-raised singer-songwriter Forrest McCurren's music is a celebration of the "luckiness of life." In fact, you could consider his debut album Oh Me, Oh My a soundtrack to those moments of human connection that feel almost cosmic.” - Bobbie Jean Sawyer
A Bit of the Album
About The Album: Track by Track
Forrest McCurren’s songs live somewhere between Saturday night and Sunday morning, rowdy and redemptive. His intoxicating stories tell tales of love and longing, leaving and regret, nostalgia and hope, and family and friends navigating a world that’s sometimes not quite big enough to hold their dreams. Like Hayes Carll, Townes Van Zandt, and Jerry Jeff Walker, Missouri native McCurren has a sharp eye for the little quirks in the people and the world around, revealing the humor that bubbles just below the surface of our lives. Like Kris Kristofferson and John Prine, McCurren writes songs that illustrate the ways that we’re all connected in our yearnings for a better world and our hopes for a more compassionate and tolerant humanity.
McCurren’s entertaining debut album Oh Me, Oh My showcases the energy of his live shows, and the songs shimmer and rock with an ebullient warmth that’s bound to reach into listeners’ hearts and souls and get them to reflect a little on the people and places that mean the most to them. “Playing song is when I feel most present, and I love sharing a moment in time with folks,” says McCurren. “Music should be a celebration!” He’s always writing songs, but the collection on this album comes from a three-year period when McCurren was setting out on his own. He’s looking back at his life, looking at his life now, and looking forward to his life to come in the 10 songs on the album. “I had left home and was living in a new city with all of the wild and wonderful uncertainty that comes with new places and new faces,” McCurren laughs. “I spent a lot of time thinking about my friends, family, and where I’m from. In the songs there’s a sense of longing and place, and they evoke the transition from running wild as a kid to running wild as a man. The songs have a sense of movement and a sense of place and a sense of who I was gonna be.”
The propulsive rocker “Little Rock” rides over jet-fueled rhythm guitar chords, Lynyrd Skynyrd-like lead runs, and B3 strains as it swerves and careens down the road between home and the traveler’s destinations. Ryan Engleman’s (Turnpike Troubadours) driving guitar evokes the urgency of the road warrior to make it on home, and McCurren’s lyrics capture the traveler’s overwhelming desire to be back in the arms of the one he loves. The messiness of a motel room in Little Rock and the orderliness of his life back home gave him the idea for the song. “The motel room I had booked in Little Rock was a complete mess and the AC wouldn’t turn off. I probably could have had my room switched but the owner, and from what I could tell the only employee, was a sweet lady named Ramona that had run the place since the 60’s and I didn’t want to trouble her so I decided I’d go out and stay up late enough that I didn’t care that the bed sheets hadn’t been washed.” McCurren also says that this is a love song for his wife, Margaret; “ever since I’ve known her I knew we fit side-by-side.”
The album’s title track sounds as it would be at home on a John Prine album, and McCurren’s vocals resemble Prine’s on this and other songs, with its spare reflections on the ups and downs of life. A lilting steel guitar adds a mournful layer of sound, elevating it from the mundane to the ethereal. Says McCurren, “This is an expression my Dad used all the time, especially to express surprise and wonder. That feeling has struck me often as I’ve slipped and slid through my 20’s, a lot of rowdy nights turning into rough mornings. Learning how to run is learning how to fall. The soul of this song is at the heart of the collection: You can either count your losses or count your blessings. Dedicated to Troublemakers, Chancetakers, Heartbreakers and Booty-shakers.”
The slowly unfurling “Big Blue Space” opens the album, floating on the strains of Margaret’s soaring violin and McCurren’s gentle fingerpicking. The matter-of-fact delivery of the lyrics capture the yearnings of the singer to leave behind a small town that’s become too claustrophobic; by the end of the song, he’s roaring like a “one-man stampede in the passing lane/Running free into the big blue space.”
The jaunty “With a Little Luck” is an ode to McCurren’s great-uncle Jim, who ran a diner called Gasper’s Cafe where McCurren met a “wise waitress” who told him to keep his “Thankfulness high.” The laid-back vibes of the song teach us “that every day is an opportunity to smile and laugh and appreciate the absurdity that we get a chance to do any of it at all. And to remember that great-uncles and great diners don’t last forever, so take the long way home and order that piece of pie.”
Shimmering guitars cascade on the spacious rocker “Denver,” which, says McCurren, “has become a favorite among our fans and has a singalong chorus. It’s a song in honor of folks that stay scrappy and sweet, and a love song for anyone that got a matching tattoo with someone special before they were 16-years-old. A tale about finding redemption on the road as well as a lost lover or friend (best when the two go hand-in-hand). I love the way the crew played on this track, groovy and gritty with a spaced-out, blue-skied backdrop for the lyrics to live in.”
The songwriting genius of Oh Me, Oh My tumbles organically out of McCurren’s life. “Music has always been a part of my life,” he recalls. “My grandma was an organist at a small country church, Prairie Chapel in Callaway County, Missouri. I used to sneak from the pew to the side of the organ to watch her play. My mom listened exclusively to Willie Nelson when I was growing up. My dad would sing ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Stand By Me’ to put me to sleep.” His older brother, Matthias, introduced the young McCurren to Springsteen and Townes Van Zandt, and when McCurren went off to college, his brother gave him his old Takamine guitar.
As soon as he learned three chords, McCurren started to write songs. “I’ve always enjoyed writing, and I have always liked stories.” Throughout his 20s he started accumulating songs. “I never had a plan in my life; music has always given me something to keep me focused,” he says. In his songwriting, he resembles Hemingway. “I always try to write one true sentence. Most of the songs I have kept, the first line I wrote was the first line of the song. Words come first, then melodies get inspired by the words. I trust the quickness of the way I write. I am always jotting down rhymes. Songs have given me a way of understanding who I am and relating to people.”
Aside from “playing pick-up sports and drinking beers,” music is McCurren’s favorite way to connect with people. “To me, the best songs are human and help us to realize how much we all share.” He doesn’t write many sad songs, but songs that move us and celebrate, as he says, the “luckiness of life.” As his debut album shows, McCurren excels at making those connections and at celebrating life. Forrest McCurren has a reverence for the songs, and he sings, plays, and writes with a heart for bringing people together.
Press Photos
