Andy McKee: Art of Motion (2005)

CANdYRAT records

1. “Art of Motion” – 3:25
2. “When She Cries” – 3:35
3. “Drifting” – 3:11
4. “For My Father” – 3:55
5. “Practice is Perfect” – 2:59
6. “Shanghai” – 4:14
7. “Into the Ocean” – 3:52
8. “Nocturne” – 3:13
9. “Heather’s Song” – 3:24
10. “Samus’ Stardrive” – 2:41
11. “Keys to the Hovercar” – 3:48
12. “Rylynn” – 5:13

I wanna just start this off by saying that Andy McKee sucks at life! (Mainly because he’s a Obama supporter…heh) Now, with all trolling being said, this is a great CD, complete with enough fingerstyle technique to shoot fireworks out of your computer speakers and lightning from your body’s orifices.

Andy McKee isn’t your ordinary fingerstyle guitarist. Besides citing influences such as Michael Hedges and Tommy Emmanuel, he lists Iron Maiden, Bjork and Dream Theater as some of his favorites, and it does show through the poppy nuances, the subtle use of heavy power-chording (see “Drifting” for an example), and the very progressive-esque flow of ideas his songs generate. But with all these good aspects being analyzed, I want to provide a rebuttal against myself, because no article is perfect without a healthy dose of obnoxiousness (see: The O’ Reilly Factor).

In the academic guitar world, fingerstyle steel-string guitarists generally are known as hokey, mainly because they doodle around until they find something that sounds nice and overly-cheesy, paying no particular heed to the idealized aspects of contrapuntal harmony. Let’s face it, we all gotta get paid, son. Now I’m not going to claim that all of the material on this CD was found this way, as I feel that a lot of emotion can be found in his playing, but I know for a fact that he doesn’t always have a meaning behind his songs; one example of this would be Heather’s Song, which he stated that he just wrote it randomly, and later just named it because his sister, Heather, randomly asked him to name it after her. I want to make it clear that this does NOT discount his ability as a musician/guitarist/composer. The guy’s great; I’ve already learned and have performed some of his material (which should show that I respect Andy a great deal), and I really envy the guy’s tone, dynamic/timbre control, and overall finesse about his instrument. I just want to discuss issues at hand that peeve the crap out of me regarding the purpose of composed music (I personally feel that this is even more true for his latest CD, Gates of Gnomeria. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, (it’s a great cd) but I feel like it’s harder to receive anything substantial when I listen to that cd). I do feel that most of the music on this CD sounds true to what it was made for— this feels especially true of several songs like Rylynn or Samus Stardrive. Music is supposed to convey a story, deliver a meaning, something! Don’t make an album with 15 tracks where 4 of the tracks are filler; make an 11 track album, and don’t make music that’s useless— Fergie does that crap enough as it is.

I feel similarly inclined with the purpose of a lot of contemporary jazz standards that are written without the thought of a meaning behind the song. This is mostly in relationship to songs written by jazzers without a substantial inspiration and meaning, or lyrics to serve a meaning on a silver platter for the audience. A lot of jazz tunes were definitely written for the sole purpose of soloing (e.g.: think “Blue Trane”), as songwriters wanted a quick and painless head (main melody) just so that they can get to the soloing quickly. If you didn’t know this and consider yourself a jazz aficionado, take a jazz appreciation class, please.

Personally, I would think it would be hard to address this topic since I didn’t specify any particular musicians or songs—I just want to provide food for thought. Ingest this and provide your thoughts on the matter; my inclination does not affect my affinity for the music, as I still enjoy a good melody line, a good showcase of musicality or technique, or a good solo. Again, I just wanted to bring something I’ve thought about for a while to light.

Just to stem possible flamers from saying stupid arguments such as “Why don’t you write a better cd?” or something to that degree, I wanna state that: (1) I definitely admit that the guy is an amazingly technically proficient player, to the degree that I could only hope to get that far, (2) I never interviewed the guy, so my article is based on whatever information I could get on this guy, as well as just listening intently to his CD, and (3) why don’t you attack the premise and not the philosopher? Prove me wrong, don’t mudsling–politicians (*cough* Obama †) do it enough as it already is.

† Check up on the “Bush-McCain foreign policy.” I’m not a hardcore McCain follower, I don’t even care much for the McCain, but Obama’s statements are ridiculous. lol whatever.

So anyway, enough of my BS, I’ll start reviewing like I’m supposed to do (otherwise Stephen will probably have a fit). For your benefit, I’m going to add a YouTube video of each song I can possibly put, since Andy’s done one for almost all the tunes on this CD.

The album starts off with an amazingly hip tune called “Art of Motion.” This tune is probably one of my favorite pieces in the album. Now, this is a piece that definitely provides a staunch contrast to what I was stating in my little prologue. Let me provide Andy’s own words, written on the album booklet, regarding this fine piece:

“A song about energy and movement. I was having a hard time coming up with a name (as I often do) until an audience member offered the name of her ballet school … Perfect!”

Now, although I find this whole situation pretentious (including myself), I want to state that this song has soul. There’s something about the contrapuntal melodies and harmonies and inner voices and rhythms that can catch a person off guard, forcing one to bob his head back and forth like a down-syndrome-maligned fowl (if this even exists), regardless of music education. If you don’t have time to listen to the full CD, this better be one of the tracks you listen to (and it’s track 1, I mean, c’mon!).

The next tune on the list is “When She Cries.” Personally, I enjoy the song’s theme, as it is a fulfilling statement in relationship to the title. Also, I really enjoy how proficient he is at using his left hand as a capo and tapping with his right hand; his right hand technique is so precise and powerful that his tone/timbre doesn’t make a significant change. What I do want to say is that I personally feel that his tremolo bridge section is a bit out of place stylistically with the rest of the song. This is where that “progressive” stream-of-consciousness composing can sometimes irk me; if I was to analyze it like that, I would compare this consciousness to a person with attention-deficit disorder. I’ve seen something similar by world-class steel-string virtuoso Michael Chapdelaine, in his instrumental rendition of Extreme’s “More Than Words”, and even then, his facial expression clearly brought out that it was a sort of musical jest. Here’s a video of that by the way:

Oh well. I give up. Going forward…

“Drifting.” Considerably speaking, this song is the main reason why anyone knows Andy McKee. Achieving over 14,000,000 hits on YouTube alone, it was the top music video on YouTube for a considerable amount of time, and is still among the highest ever rated. I don’t really need to say this, but it’s a badass work-of-art. Inspired by the great Dr. Preston Reed, his technique is very to-the-style, having his left hand play on top of the fingerboard. Just watch the damn video.

Coming fourth on the tracklist is the song “For My Father.” A simpler tune than the rest, I can really feel some laidback but strong emotion in this piece. Through his use of slight swing like a normal country/folk tune, and a low dynamic contrast, it develops into a sonic portrait Andy paints of an old-fashioned, but noble individual. He tends to stay in a pentatonic tonality, sometimes branching out to hit the rest of the major tones from time to time. This becomes a tool in helping keep the emotion from being overbearingly sad or happy, but rather in a sort of limbo. Be intent when listening to this one and try to receive something positive from it.

The next piece is…well it’s not important enough obviously to get a YouTube video. Don’t even worry about it.

J/k. “Practice is Perfect” is an alright piece. I feel of it more or less like a doodle. But I guess that was intentional? -_-;;. The tune right after it seems similar in design; it’s called “Shanghai,” and one would think it has something to do with China, but it sounds so contemporary American.

“On the last day of my tour in China, I was sitting in my hotel room in Shanghai and this tune pretty much jumped right out of the guitar with little effort on my part. Shanghai is a beautiful, modern town with some amazing architecture and wonderful sights, but I couldn’t help but start to feel a bit homesick.” – Andy McKee on Shanghai (found in the cd booklet)

I just can’t help but feel that such a song lacks substance. In fact, bits and pieces remind me of this bluegrass rendition of “The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers” by Steve Kuhn wrote, that Chris Thile of Nickel Creek and Mike Marshall performed. HUH. Stylistically speaking, it had nothing to do with China. For one thing, Chinese music makes use of stringed zithers (of all sizes), which make use of lots of quick bending and vibrato, but not much sliding as all as it consists of a movable bridge per string. I’m probably going waaaaaaay too far in left field with this, but my OCD’s kicking in, saying why couldn’t it be named more aptly? Like “Feeling Homesick,” “Thoughts of Home from Shanghai,” or my personal favorite, “Unilaterally Random Doodle Drawn Out Ubiquitously in a Chinese Hotel Room.”

That wouldn’t be artistic though, huh? Whatever.

And after two whatevers, here’s a solid tune. Into the Ocean’s a tune played on a harp guitar, and I love the tone and ambience harp guitars deliver for the same reason why I love multi-stringed guitars (guitars with 7+ strings) — because it provides a new world of resonance and overtones to help you relax your stress away (unless you’re Korn, then you abuse the 7-string electric, a beautiful instrument made possible by Steve Vai, by playing the mostly-absurd numetal). Andy does a great job of accompanying himself with the powerful lower-end of the harp guitar’s bass strings, using droning pedal tones (a musical device he actually frequents in his other songs, just only this is harp guitar…lol =P ) as well as complementing, flowing thematic statements to create a subsequently flowing ambience. Thank you Andy =].

I’m purposely skipping the next two tracks, for reasons you can probably make educated guesses. Great technique and talent though. :shrugs:

The next two songs I’m gonna review as one, mainly because I feel as if “Samus Stardrive” and “Keys to the Hovercar” are sister songs, in that they give the essence of thematic music. I feel like I’m watching a movie, especially with Samus Stardrive. OH MAN. In this song, Andy starts off the piece with a thematic idea using a flurry of harmonics. I swear I feel like I’m whizzing by stars in space right next to Samus. (Of course, being a mutual fanboy of the Metroid series, it’s definitely Zero-Suit Samus. Wait, huh? ) ANYWAY, “Keys to the Hovercar” has something similar, in the use of these heavy, snapped low notes that give me a similar feeling of weightlessness. The rhythm is held in the pocket, something to be expected of someone capable of placing extremely high in the Fingerstyle Guitar Competition of the Canadian Guitar Festival. Guy has leet hax I swear.

“Rylynn.” Before anything else, I want to say that I love this song. I’ve performed this song at gigs, including my end-of-the-semester classical guitar recital— I even made a quirk out of it by sometimes involving another guitarist playing the end artificial harmonic accompaniment on the same guitar as mine. It’s a cool gimmick— it really gets people excited— and I got the picture to prove it (which is btw courtesy of our very own Stephen Kim):

(The guitarist above me is Adrian Gomez, quite a talented player btw)

Rylynn is definitely a song of the ages. Andy composed this song in loving memory of Rylynn Coffman, and if you listen to this song, you will truly experience a weakening of the knees. The song accentuates a tone of mixed feelings, of love and sorrow from the tumultuous events surrounding the death of a loved one (I’m inferring from the bridge portion), to the peace she must have felt (incurred during the outro), leaving our world and going on to a better place. I can definitely admit that it is this song that enchained and solidified my respect for Mr. Andy McKee.

A fine guitarist and individual, I’m sure he’ll do many great things with his music. Sure there were things I could pick out, but that was probably my OCD, cynically argumentative nature talking. For your sake and ours, let’s hope Andy makes a hundred more cds like this one, because this one’s a keeper.

Derek’s mostly biased but highly-acclaimed rating of holiness:

€€€ ☺☺☺☺☺ 5/5 Gingerbread Men.€€€