Music of Heather McCready

We enjoyed a  wonderful evening of music at Crossroads last night.  This was a top quality performance that could play most anywhere but last night they were here in Winnsboro. Heather McCready is a singer-songwriter and when I attend a concert of a singer-songwriter, I'm happy if there are just a couple songs on the plus side of "just ok" but we both thought all of her songs were well into the plus side and we enjoyed them all.  She also has a band with a lot of credentials - and instruments like a cello, a stand-up bass, mandolin, and violin! Give it a Day  is the name of her latest CD and is the second song on this link.  Just skip the first one and go down to this one.

Rather than rewrite everything I'm just including some of the notice for her Crossroads performance below.

"I’ve always dreamed of being a songwriter,” she said. “It was in my soul. It’s who I am. I’m a writer and a musician. I felt like I was going to burst if I didn’t begin to express myself.” With a crystalline voice reminiscent of Emmy Lou Harris, McCready has released three CDs, “Finally Free,” “Neverland” and “Give It A Day.” She describes her sound as a mixture of Celtic, classical, bluegrass and folk music.

McCready shares co-production on “Give It A Day,” released in late 2010, with Milo Deering, a much-sought after Dallas musician and a member of the popular trio Beatlegras. “I was very impressed with her songwriting and singing,” Deering said in an e-mail. “Heather has a very good harmonic sense and understands how tension and resolution can help convey the emotion in a song. We put that to good use as we worked up string and vocal arrangements.” 

In addition to Deering, McCready has a strong roster of talent backing her up in the studio and in live performances.

George Anderson sits in on the upright bass. Anderson graduated from Grand Prairie High School, studied music at the University of North Texas, playing the upright bass in the world-famous UNT One O’Clock Lab Band. He began his professional career as the bassist with the famed Woody Herman Big Band and has played with Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Marvin Hamlisch, Chuck Berry, Joe Williams, The Coasters, Brook Benton, The Fifth Dimension and Doc Severensen. His 2003 CD “Faces” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Jazz category.

John Landefeld handles the cello for McCready’s band. Landefeld holds a bachelors’ of music degree in cello performance from the Eastman School of Music. In addition to appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Landefeld has performed with musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Milwaukee Symphony. Kade Eckhardt, a Sulphur Springs High School cellist, is one of Landefeld’s private students.

Sam Swank, who once served as Olivia Newton-John’s guitarist, is a recent addition to the band."“Milo and I co-wrote on this album, too,” explained McCready. “There is so much of a coming together on it. Where Milo’s talent starts to fade, mine picks up. Where mine drops off the planet, his picks up. We’ve made beautiful music together.”