Pat McGee Albums (8)
'Live from the Southland'
Release Date 1/1/2090
Tracks 13
Label Rockridge
See Album Tracklist and Review
'These Days (The Virginia Sessions)'
Release Date 3/10/2009
Tracks 9
Label Rock Ridge
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
It's been an eventful several years for Pat McGee since the release of his last studio album, 2004's Save Me, which, like its predecessors, 2000's Shine and 1999's live General Admission, and 1997's Revel, was credited to the Pat McGee Band (PMB). His major-label sojourn, which began with Shine, a one-week resident on the Billboard album chart, ended with Save Me, which did not chart at all, after which he and his cohorts were forced to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and return to being the Virginia-based territory band they had been before, relying on their 250 dates a year up and down the Eastern Seaboard to sustain them. In 2006, PMB drummer Chris Williams died suddenly, but the group soldiered on, releasing the CD/DVD Vintage Stages Live in 2007 and the iTunes-only Live from the Southland at the start of 2009. Meanwhile, at their gigs they were hawking These Days (The Virginia Sessions), now picked up for retail distribution by Rock Ridge Music. It is the first album since 1995's From the Wood to be credited solely to McGee, even though all the bandmembers are on it and the PMB even gets a co-producer credit. In effect, it might as well be considered a full-fledged band effort, but maybe the billing signals a tribute to Williams, or an acknowledgement that the bandleader has been moonlighting in different configurations. Some evidence of the former supposition comes from the melancholy mood of much of the material. McGee has always taken romantic discord as his main lyric topic, but here a song such as "Come Back Home" may support a double meaning, and the album-closing "End of October" seems only interpretable as a lament about Williams' death. The tone lends the record more depth than the usual PMB album, which is all to the good. This is an artist who tends to be reliably pleasant but inescapably lightweight. It's no crime to make tuneful pop/rock with hooks aplenty, but in the second half of the '90s and the early years of the 21st century it just hasn't been a ticket to success wider than the band's touring radius. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Vintage Stages Live'
Release Date 2/20/2007
Tracks 38
Label Kirtland
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Working in the same FM realm as Train, Goo Goo Dolls, and Counting Crows, the Pat McGee Band utilize a capable blend of wistful romanticism and mid-tempo balladry to weave a web of sound that rarely offends. Their fifth release, Save Me, finds the Virginia natives expounding on their simplistic notions of love and love lost, resulting in a recording that breaks little new ground but achieves its overall goal of existing. Highlights include the upbeat rockers "Annabel" and "Set Me Free," and the catchy single "Beautiful Ways." ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Giant Records must be hoping it has another Dave Matthews Band on its hands with the Pat McGee Band, another outfit formed by a Virginia-based singer/songwriter that issued several albums on its own label and built up a regional following by touring extensively. But the McGee Band is stylistically a little closer to an earlier Virginia model, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, than it is to Matthews. Their folk-rock tunes are full of acoustic guitars and such stringed instruments as banjo and mandolin; while they do not eschew electric instruments, their interest in melodies and harmonies give them more of a folk-pop than a jam-rock sound. Shine presents a band that has developed its own distinctive sound. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'General Admission'
Release Date 1/5/1999
Tracks 10
Label Crossman Street
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Perhaps because it is a live album, General Admission does a 180 degree turn from the Pat McGee Band's overly complex musical noodling on their second album, Revel, and marks a return to the straight-ahead acoustic rock that helped make McGee's first album enjoyable. The musicianship has improved here, and the band sounds relaxed and professional in front of its adoring fans. ~ Stacia Proefrock, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Revel, the first album that Pat McGee recorded with an extended lineup, messes with the one thing that made his first album worthwhile -- its simplicity. His slightly sappy lyrics seemed forgivable on From the Record when they were backed only by a skeleton crew of musicians -- now that everything is overblown, they seem bloated with sentiment. A strange mixture of traditional rock elements like bluesy saxophone and banjo picking just doesn't work -- it leaves the listener thinking that the song would be much better if the engineer left off a few tracks when the mixing was done. ~ Stacia Proefrock, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The debut album from Virginia-based singer/songwriter Pat McGee, From the Wood is a collection of acoustic rock songs supported by lovelorn lyrics. While none of these songs displays the kind of songwriting that produces catchy rhythms or lyrics that stick in your head, McGee has a kind of earnest rock-star voice and the music has a mellow, front-porch jam session kind of quality. For a self-produced first album from a small-town singer/songwriter, From the Wood holds together well. ~ Stacia Proefrock, All Music Guide
