"Larry John McNally" --by Neil Fagan

[This article appeared in the November/December 1996 issue of Performing Songwriter, and has been reprinted with permission.]

In most professional endeavors there are rules of the road or tricks of the trade that everyone follows. Certain accepted guidelines everyone more or less agrees upon. And then there's Larry John McNally. For most of his professional songwriting career he has been an unsigned songwriter, no publishers to pitch his material or tell him how to change it. So it's more than just a little bit amazing that his tunes have been recorded by the best voices in pop music today. Rod Stewart, Aaron Neville, Joe Cocker, Mavis Staples, Chaka Khan and Bonnie Raitt have all put their pipes to work on McNally's songs. McNally was born in Bangor, Maine, and playing in bands by the time he was thirteen. While still but a lad, he found himself in New Orleans and on the doorstep of Allen Toussaint's home. And he knocked. This led to Toussaint helping him land his first cut with Aaron Neville. McNally would soon find himself in L.A. making records for Columbia and Atlantic.

In 1995, McNally released "Vibrolux," an independent project produced by former Lone Justice member Marvin Etzioni. McNally's bluesy acoustic guitar work is highlighted alongside the talents of drummer Don Heffington, (also a Lone Justice alumnus) and bassist Jerry Scheff (Scheff is perhaps the only man who can claim to have played with both Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello). When the new rule books are written there will no doubt be a new chapter added. Something like "And Then There's Larry John McNally's Way". Read it closely.

When we last spoke you were contemplating a U.S. tour. Did you go?

No, I didn't do that. Just for practical reasons. I'm trying to work with my band because it's more fun for me. I ended up just playing solo at Passim's in Boston and a few other shows. The band thing is so expensive right now, I don't know what the answer to that is.

Any new cuts?

No, unfortunately there's not. But things start changing. It's more fun to get out and meet people in the live circuit. I want things to happen that way. I met this girl in New York who does this jazz thing. I ended up producing her album and it's all my songs.

And you're still your own publisher?

I am.

So you have a threefold attack that you have to maintain. A writer, a performer and a businessman.

Yeah, it's true and it's demanding and time consuming. But I was playing the other night and it occurred to me when you're just writing and you're in your room alone, when you get out to perform it can be very hard. It takes a while to get the hang of it. But the feedback you can feel in a room is direct. You can feel the room going with you or not going with you. It's demanding but I think it's helped my writing and my singing and my playing.

Are you disciplined? Do you have an approach you use?

Unfortunately I don't. People have asked me what my typical day is like and there isn't one.

Do you make it a point to write everyday?

I'm always working on it, let's put it that way. I've always got about ten or more songs going at one time. I'll pick one up and work on it until I go cold.

How long is the shelf life of an unfinished song?

I have to say it can sometimes be years. Lately I've written a few songs rather quickly. I was telling someone in Nashville that and they asked what quickly was for me. I said six months. And they were talking about sessions where two people write a song in an hour. I want the songs to be this killer little gem. What I try to do is capture the killer little moment and only use that. When I wrote "Nobody's Girl" that was all I had: "She's nobody's girl." And it evoked something in me. I think I pieced together a first verse and put it aside. Then I came up with the second verse. I think I had all the verses but no bridge. I started in September and that's what I had by December. I played it for Bonnie as an unfinished piece and she said, "That's the one." With that vote of confidence I went back to it. I was reading some play--I like to read plays--and something in it touched something in me and I wrote the bridge and gave it to Bonnie in January.

Was the initial inspiration for that song a real person?

Yeah, I think it was my first love.

Would you describe yourself as a skeptic or a romantic?

I think I'm a realist. I'm amazed at the bullshit that we buy as people. You know the stuff that's presented to us in societal form. I think pop music has a big influence on people growing up. You walk around reciting the words and so many of the songs are...

Crap?

Yeah. And they're preaching that you're going to meet somebody and your life is going to change and everything will be wonderful. But what really happens is you meet somebody and then you go into the deep, dark self...who you are. You're only drawn to a person who is the perfect other person for the dramatic role you have to play. That's who you're drawn to and that's when the sparks start flying. When you get to know somebody, when you start rubbing up against somebody, then you're in for it. I think the reason most people go through a lot of relationships is that when you get right down into it, it's not fun like you thought it would be. It's not as simple and beautiful as you thought it would be.

And there are very few songwriters who will address it from that angle.

I think that's a crime, I really do. I think that's the responsibility of an artist. If you want to get on a spiritual level, the whole concept is to give not to take. And the truth is when you give it comes back to you. But if you start getting on the take mode, it becomes watered down. I used to hate songwriting. It was so anxiety prone, and it still is, but it's become a place for me to go where I'm soul mining, you know. I'm digging down into it.

Do you feel like you've found your voice?

I think I have actually. It's somewhat recent but I think I have. I like to read The Paris Review. It's full of poetry and short stories and interviews with writers. There was one interview with Richard Price who wrote Clockers and the screenplay for The Color Of Money. I love listening to this guy talk. He'll say things that are so poetic, and that's where I draw my inspiration. When people say things that are poetic without even trying to be poetic. And that to me is the truth of life. Each of us have things...illness in your family, your dreams, interpersonal stuff, that's what we all live with everyday. And when you can find some insight or piece of wisdom to help you, that's what I'm trying to put into a song. It helps me to sing it and it helps people to hear it. When you tell your truth it strikes this common chord in all of us, this thread of existence. When you tell your truth it hits that chord in another person and gives them a physical rush like "I'm alive just like you". I think that's what we look for in music.

Not everyone can do that, which makes it so much more refreshing when you do find someone who's doing it for the truth and not the dollar signs.

Well, to get spiritual again, I think if you get in line spiritually, God, or whoever it is, sends you the people you need. If you're trying to stay in touch with the things that matter. I mean if you want to go out and start drinking every night in a bar and meeting people in a bar, eventually you're probably not going to feel too fresh. You have to aim for the things that matter and hopefully the things that matter will be in your life.

11/96