{"id":21896,"date":"2021-11-07T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T10:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21896"},"modified":"2021-10-27T10:31:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T14:31:26","slug":"catching-up-with-fayssoux-mclean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/07\/catching-up-with-fayssoux-mclean\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Fayssoux McLean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I first chatted with Fayssoux McLean in early 2018<\/a>. Since that time, the feisty and irrepressible singer-songwriter has stayed busy with live performances. McLean is part of several ensembles \u2013 a duo with Brandon Turner, the trio Almost Acoustic, the Bluegrass Messengers, her electric band Fayssoux & Company \u2013 all showcasing a repertoire that spans multiple genres. McLean maintains a full schedule in Western North Carolina and the South Carolina upstate.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been playing with guitarist Brandon Turner for more than 20 years, an eternity in the music world. What\u2019s special about him?<\/b>
\nHe is my go-to guitar player! Brandon is absolutely wonderful; I trust him with everything. I give him the last word on everything, because it’s his guitar playing that’s going to make or break it.<\/p>\n

In addition to your original material, how do you choose what songs to include in your set?<\/b>
\nI go all over the place! I’m eclectic, and I like a whole lot of different things, from Mose Allison \u2013 who would be considered jazz \u2013 to country: Jimmie Rodgers, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou [Harris] and Hank Williams. I do \u201cSt. Louis Blues” which is a song from 1914, I sing Chris Isaak\u2019s \u201cWicked Game,\u201d I can do \u201cBlack Magic Woman.\u201d You just cannot tell<\/i> what I’m about to do!<\/p>\n

You worked with famed songwriter Tom T. Hall, who passed away very recently. His songs are warm, wise and funny. What was he like in person?<\/b>
\nTom T. was quite an unusual fellow. He played a guitar, and he said he always kept it out because, he said, \u201cit doesn’t like being in the case.\u201d And when I drove up to his farm to sing on his Songs of Fox Hollow<\/i> album, there were peacocks all around! A great big one was strutting his stuff on the front porch as if to say, \u201cWelcome!\u201d<\/p>\n

Did he ever share any musical advice?<\/b>
\nHe did. When I got ready to sing a song on the Women of Bluegrass<\/i> box set, I was trying to make sense of it. He said, \u201cFayssoux, put yourself in the mind of a soliloquy, like from Hamlet<\/i>. Pretend that you’re just talking<\/i> this song, not singing it.\u201d So I tried that different technique, and it worked better! I always loved that help that he tried to give me.<\/p>\n

Speaking of advice, if you could go back and give one piece of advice to a younger version of you, what would it be?<\/b>
\n‘Be prepared when Lady Luck hits you. And be persistent.\u201d I think there are a lot of talented people in the world, and some are more famous than others only because they’re more persistent, not because they’re more talented.<\/p>\n

Over the course of your career so far, you\u2019ve had a lot of great gigs. But tell me about a bad one.<\/b>
\nWell, the potential<\/i> for bad gig was at Emmylou show with Rodney Crowell and Sam Bush in Shelby. I was asked to come on stage earlier than expected. Finding the backstage flashlight fellow missing, I caught my red vintage boot on a cable and it sent me sailing out on stage in front of a packed audience. I just threw my arm up, saying \u201cHere I am!\u201d A stage technician picked me up, and I went to my chair and sang. But it was a great night, with a VIP reception at the Earl Scruggs Museum, and funds raised for a good cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first chatted with Fayssoux McLean in early 2018. Since that time, the feisty and irrepressible singer-songwriter has stayed busy with live performances. McLean is part of several ensembles \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,41],"tags":[3414],"class_list":["post-21896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-interview","tag-fayssoux-starling","cat-30-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21898,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21896\/revisions\/21898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}