George Terry McDonald: Here Comes Trouble

Sometimes art and music merely coexist. In special cases, they can complement each other. There are few artists with a mastery of both forms, individuals who can draw from the best of both creative disciplines. And fewer still can forge a bond between the two. Asheville-based George Trouble is such an artist, and his latest album Entanglement showcases his skill at doing so.

As George Terry McDonald, he’s a celebrated visual artist who creates vivid, dense and evocative works with paint on canvas. Leading George Trouble and the Zealots, he writes and sings songs that have a similarly resonant quality. And he admits that there can be a connection between his work in two very different creative disciplines.

“Sometimes an idea for a song will happen while I’m painting,” McDonald says. “Often, the painting process might have some conceptual, allegorical stuff going on.” He explains that the “spillover” can lead him to put down his paint brush and pick up the guitar.

It works the other way around as well. “Song ideas engender visuals,” he says. McDonald believes that for him, the two artistic forms “can’t help but influence each other.” At the root of all of it, he asserts, is “motivation and conception: what I feel compelled to say, and how I say it.”

Much has been made of the supposed left brain/right brain divide and how it figures into humans’ creative (and ostensibly non-creative) expression. McDonald suggests that’s a largely false construct. “I agree that there are two different brain functions going on,” he concedes. “The physical activity of painting requires you to draw on the right side of the brain. Or… is it the left side?” he asks with a self-effacing laugh.

McDonald believes that the human brain works best when those two sides interact. “And that has to do with why I call the record Entanglement,” he explains. “It refers to the wonder I have about that interaction.” He suggests that because there’s so much interchange between those parts that we don’t understand or even know about, we end up worrying about it. And that causes internal turmoil.

Previewed with three singles, set for official release July 7 and being promoted with live solo and full band dates throughout this summer and fall, Entanglement features 11 songs that showcase a variety of musical styles yet work together as a unified whole. From the country blues of “Die in Your Smile” to the Parisian jazz-flavored “Everybody is Crazy But Me” to the wry and rocking Dave Edmunds pastiche “Hidin’ from the Hippies” to the soulful, exuberant “Supervision,” the album serves up a bounty of memorable, musically engaging songs.

George Trouble’s lyrics on Entanglement express a worldview that’s equal parts weary, seen-it-all jaded and – most significantly – hopeful. One of the album’s ear-candy highlights is “Love Still Matters,” a tune defined by its upbeat sentiment, hit home with sublime vocal harmonies by Dulci Ellenberger.

McDonald says that he loves most every style of music, though some of them in smaller doses than others. “I love reggae for a few songs,” he says. “I love ska, polka for few songs; bluegrass, even.” He says that over the years, he has sharpened his ability to write songs that move beyond the traditional boundaries of what a rock ’n’ roll band might do. “Because,” he quips, “you don’t have to scream every song.”

But when it comes to making his original music, there’s a limit. “I can only play what I know how to play,” McDonald confesses. And that fact is part of the creative glue that holds Entanglement together in brilliant fashion.

Happily, McDonald long ago came to the realization that when making a record, “you don’t have to depend [solely] on the strength of your pipes, or your limited guitar skills. You can imagine things, and get people to help you.” Other music luminaries featured on the album include Band of Heathens guitarist Ed Jurdi, bassist Zach Page, drummers Evan Martin and Lee Allen, singer Chlo and McDonald’s longtime friend and “right-hand man,” keyboardist Aaron Price.

Like many in WNC, McDonald witnessed firsthand the effects of tropical storm Helene. “We knew nothing for four or five days; what we were getting was rumors, because there was no communication after Helene happened,” he recalls. A few days after the flooding, McDonald drove to Charlotte to stay with some dear friends. While there, he caught up on news via TV and the internet. “And I started hearing the chatter,” he says, “the lies about FEMA and the Trump propaganda.” He says that he descended into a “spiral of information processing,” with its sense of unreality.

His next painting was a visual representation of that turmoil. A detail from the intentionally cluttered, disorienting and ominous work would become the cover art for Entanglement. “I added these chimera subjects in the water – gargoyles, devils – because I have art history, Albrecht Durer and Hieronymus Bosch in my head,” he says with a chuckle.

But Entanglement balances its cover’s unsettling imagery with lyrics that betray hard-earned self-awareness. Offering the example of “Everyone is Crazy But Me,” McDonald makes an important point: “Yes, that’s the title of the song. But hopefully you’ll get the snicker that I’m laughing at myself… and everyone else.”