mollycoulter.com

The way that it swings
Iconic Flag songwriter Nolan McKelvey goes in a new direction
By Molly Coulter
Published on 12/06/2007

On Nolan McKelvey’s fourth solo album The Sound of the Crash, the polished singer-songwriter hangs up his proverbial button-snap cowboy shirt.
     McKelvey describes the paradigm in which he performs in the album’s second track, “I Can’t Disguise.” He sings, “There are so many people out there bound by proof. They can’t imagine what we’ve got. They only know one truth.” He could have penned it without this intention, but it appears to call out the locals who are quick to label his sound as country and ask them to wipe the bleary haze of his Onus B. Johnson days out of view. What follows is a set of songs that depart from his past collaborations and current band, Muskellunge Bluegrass, and resonate with graceful and radio-ready rock, jazz and pop styles.
     “I write a lot of songs, and just conceptually I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to record them because Rand [Anderson, McKelvey’s former guitarist] had moved on to the Country Thunder tours and he had a really good opportunity to get some big gigs. He created a lot of that country sound and this was a chance to try something different,” McKelvey says of the album’s early stage.
     A colleague suggested Jeff Lusby and the two met over coffee. “In spite of the broad differences in the way we present our music we came to the conclusion that good music is good music and there isn’t a need to categorize music,” says McKelvey.
     Lusby has spent the past five years gigging with the alternative rock and pop group Mercy Fall, who are well-received amongst Flagstaff’s youngsters, but may be off the radar for McKelvey’s typical crowd. Lusby, who loved McKelvey’s voice, but scarcely had conversed with him, says he was brainstorming long before McKelvey approached him.
     “The ideas I had about his songs and the directions they could go were different,” Lusby says, who joins our interview sporting a goatee, labret piercing and Tenacious D T-shirt. He’s aged a few years less than McKelvey and unquestionably the pair looks offbeat, but the synthesis that this odd couple created in the studio is harmonious. They began with a trial-run and recorded the song “A Ripple on the Water’.
     “It really captured what I was going for. I was trying to bridge the gap between what I listen to and what I sound like,” says McKelvey.
     Lusby and Mercy Fall shared a rehearsal space and studio with local pop-rockers Telescope, so “just by proximity” Lusby says, keyboardist Mike Seitz joined the recording team. “I’ve got such a different musical perspective from Nolan and then Mike’s got another one,” Lusby says. Seitz’s keys complement “Twilight,” a jazzy love song ideal for twirling twosomes. McKelvey invited a list of other esteemed artists to lay down tracks, including drummers Ron James and Andrew Lauher, bassist Tim Hogan and keyboardist/organ-player Steve Caldwell.
     “In our music scene we have neighborhoods and this is an unlikely pair of neighborhoods,” Lusby says. “It’s something that worked and it’s a step in bridging together the community.”
     McKelvey says building that bridge necessitated tearing down old practices.
     “I’m used to finding people I really like personally who I respect as good musicians and allowing them to collaborate as we lay down a song,” McKelvey says. “This was more of a concept I was going for. This time around I wanted to do it more holistically and make it about a sound, rather than about a band. The departure of Rand and Andrew was bittersweet but it also opened the door. I didn’t go into the recording studio with a band to sound like X. It allowed us to support the song as opposed to support the band.”
     Aware my question might be interpreted as fightin’ words, I ask McKelvey and Lusby if they intended to create a pop sound.
     “It’s hard not to sound vain or funny about it, but I wanted it to sound more artistic,” McKelvey says. “I wanted more subtleness, a little less twangy, a step away from the country aspects of things.”
     “It wasn’t conscientiously more poppy,” Lusby says. “I think it was more about accessibility. I wanted to broaden it to a new accessibility. People who come out to the CD release show may be surprised. It is a lot different but it is true to him. It’s not contrived. It’s different, but it’s true.”
     McKelvey asserts, “It’s more ‘me’ than I’ve ever been able to put out before. Ultimately, it always comes back to, I write songs because I love to write songs and it’s something that is intrinsically a part of me. It’s a vehicle to express myself and then it’s up to them.”
     Nolan McKelvey and the Civilian Contemplation Corp will feature songs from the new album, The Sound of the Crash, at its CD release party Sat, Dec. 8 at the Mogollon Brewing Co., 15 N. Agassiz. Voluntary String Band and Valley singer-songwriter Dave Mulligan will open the night at 8 p.m. There will be a $5 cover charge or for $10, listeners can catch the show and take home a copy of The Sound of the Crash. For more information, go to www.nolanmckelvey.com or call 773-8950.