Tommy McLain's Swapified Regal Return

It was a fantastic night at New Orleans’ Rock ‘n’ Bowl, possibly the best night the place had ever seen, if you don’t consider the two nights that came before. Dr. Ike and his Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau put on a show of shows, bringing to the stage the greatest musicians in the world…many for the first in memory…music legends from the 50s and 60s, may of whom had been lost in time, other just trying to grab another moment in front a hungry audience. The year was 2003, in between Jazz Fest weekends. The second Ponderosa Stomp, a three day event that began with The Sun Ra Arkestra (each day), ushered in an incredible program that included a salute to Elvis with all the original band members who were still alive (hot damn!), a salute to Howlin’ Wolf with Hubert Sumlin, Jody Williams and Henry Grey (damn! damn!), a cavalcade of heroes: Tony Joe White, Zigaboo Modeliste, Lazy Lester, Barbara Lynn, Frogman Henry¹ (damn! damn! damn!)….it is exhausting just THINKING about it. It was the event where a frail Phil Phillips dazzled the crowd with his oh-so-iconic Sea Of Love to just return to the stage, moments after leaving, to do it again.

Tommy McLain at the Ponderosa Stomp

And on that third night, Dr. Ike put together the ultimate: a salute to Swamp Pop…and the artists whose records made it “a thing.” That is where I first saw Tommy Mclain…when he took the stage styled is two-tone black and red, a grey santa beard, grabbing the mic and pouring out a soul and voice that defied time. Like many on the bill, Tommy McLain was singing his way into the hearts of old fans and new, some singing along to his hits, some wondering who the hell he was and how they had missed that silky-smooth soul-eyed sound until now.

That triumphant night could have been the start of a reemergence. New record, tour…Tommy back on the hit-train playing his classic songs to packed houses across the country. But that is not at all what happened. In fact, Tommy had already gone twenty-three years without an official new release. It wouldn’t be til 2022…this year…that he would be back with a new record, on a great indie label, produced by a long time friend from a younger generation, who had played with Tommy that night during the Swamp Pop tribute, who had a vision to create an absolutely gorgeous record, with huge, lush productions to match Tommy’s omniscient voice. To write the next chapter for the singer who had dropped out of the national consciousness.

Tommy Mclain had a great mid-nineteen-sixties, busting out of Louisiana with singles that hit the charts in the US and Great Britain (Sweet Dreams) which led to him playing with Dick Clark’s Caravan of the Stars. He wrote a hit single for Freddie Fender (If You Don't Love Me (Why Don’t You Leave Me Alone))², and recorded single after single, mostly for Floyd Soileau’s Jin Records and with the Crazy Canjun himself Huey P. Meaux on MSL records. Tommy could do it all: sing, write, play almost any instrument you could throw at him.

The swamp pop songs that Tommy Mclain helped usher into the world are such a beautiful combination of Fats Domino/David Bartholomew piano-driven rhythm and blues, country music, and a smattering of the days pop sound. McClain cried on top of it all with his heartbreaking soul of a voice. Sweet Dreams…Think It Over…I Can’t Take It No More: these are a few examples of the epic, dreamy productions that defined Tommy McLain’s style: songs of love and loss, songs to shake the soul.

And now, after almost 40 years, his voice is back…he’s touring, he’s playing on the biggest television programs, his story is being written and rewritten in the biggest music rags and newspapers. Tommy McLain is back. And the record, I Ran Down Every Dream, is well worth the wait, a study in how to masterfully put together a modern swamp pop record, with McLain’s voice with so much power and a cavalcade of guests showing up to usher their friend into the next phase of his career…to a new generation of fans…including Elvis Costello, Van Dyke Parks, Augie Meyers, Ed Harcourt, Nick Lowe. But with all those names, the record is all Tommy McLain. Right from that first song, the self-penned No Tomorrow’s Now its quite clear he is in total command of his voice and our emotions, carrying with him the ghosts of friends like Doug Sahm, Freddie Fender, and Warren Storm whose drumming on the album is such a sweet mortal adieu; No Tomorrow’s Now brings back the heart break and sets the stage for the rest of the record.

Tommy took time from his busy schedule to graciously answer some questions I had for him. Thank you Charles Gaiennie for making it happen. I suggest you throw on the new record as you dig in to the life of Swamp Pop legend, Tommy McLain….

David Katznelson: How does it feel having a new record out after all these years? Does it feel different as to when you released your last record (Which I do believe was Backwoods Bayou Adventure)?

Tommy McLain: I feel the same and the music and melodies I'm writing feel the same, to me... But the audience is different now. They seem more educated, a lil' more hip. This time around, the music isn't just hitting here in Louisiana and along the gulf coast... It seems to be catching on in L.A. and New York and London... We've been all over tarnation lately, playing shows behind this record. We're not just playing dances anymore, like I've done my entire life. Folks are really listening intently. Seems like maybe they need to hear my words in these strange days.

DK: Before you stopped, you had so consistently put out records. Why stop? Why stop putting records out for so long?

TM: Well, I never really did stop making songs and demos and little records that we'd press maybe just a few hundred copies of to sell around home. Ya see, in Louisiana you can gig all the time. We never stop working down here… There's always dances, casinos, festivals. If you've got a lil' name for yourself, there's always a show to go an play and luckily my old Swamp Pop audience has stuck with me since we were all at the high-school dances together in the '50s! 

So I never really "stopped" performing and making music… I just didn't have the producer and promotion that I have now with CC Adcock and Yep Roc Records. No one to help me evolve my music and get it out nationally and internationally... Hell look, I'm all over your phone now! 

Tommy with CC Adcock

In the old days I was tied up with a producer - Huey Meaux out of Houston. He got himself sent off to prison but still kept me under contract. For well over 15 years, wouldn't no other label or producer could touch me or put records out on me. I was trapped in a slavery deal! The music business is dirty - you know… Full of scoundrels and thieves. I've had everything stolen from me through the years. But they can't take my voice and the music that's still inside my head and all the wonderful fans who've kept me in beans through it all.

But hey… Everything in time, right? Look where I am now. I think I'm making some of the best music of my life. I feel stronger and more creative and grateful than ever! God is mysterious, but he's good my brother… I tell ya! 

DK: There is a lot of loss on the record, dark stuff sung and played in a really up-tempo style.  What have you learned or come to understand over the past few decades that fueled the lyrics? How has your artistry evolved over time?

TM: I think I've got a certain wisdom now that you can only wait around for to try and understand. I mean, I'm still just a big kid at heart and we have nothing but fun out on the road joking and laughing and doing this music. It's a crazy but fun life. I ain't never done nothin' but music. It's all I know or ever wanted. When I was about 50, I entered the Catholic church. I became a eucharistic minister. I changed my life and now I see things from a slightly different place. Maybe I've got a bit more insight and grace and gratitude. I dunno… I still mess stuff up and get all ahead of myself and start fussin' about stuff, but now I can step back and write with some clarity about what's been happening to me. And at first, the audience is drawn in hearing me sing my story, but then it gets on them and takes them in. Pow!.. Now I'm singing your life! Do YOU remember?..

Pandemics, heart attacks, triple bypass, hurricanes, house burnt down, trying to make and get this record out... getting a deal with DECCA Records and then getting dropped at the start of this year.. Man, I've been through some shit in my life and recently! But I can use all that and make it good again and connect to maybe even helping others through music, when I turn it all into song.

DK: Great hearing Augie Meyers on the record with his quintessential keyboard style.  Is he someone you have known for a while? How was it collaborating with him a little on this record?

TM: Aww yeah man… I’ve been knowing Augie and his wife and Doug Sahm and all those cats a long time... Back since the 60s! We worked together when they had Sir Douglas Quintet and I had "Sweet Dreams" out. We shared the same producer out of Houston. In the 80s and 90s, when ol’ Doug would be coming down I-10 through Louisiana, he used to always pop into The Yesterday's Lounge in Lafayette where Warren Storm and I worked five nights a week. He even came visit me at my home in Oakdale just before he passed. I remember he had an old Indian lady riding shotgun with him, reading him scripture while he'd drive. He knew what was coming. It was after Freddy (Fender) had passed and I think he was looking to see if I could maybe fit into The Tornados. That never happened. 

Ya see, that "San Antonio" sound and the "Swamp Pop" sound is all really pretty similar... White kids doing brown music pretty damn good! Gulf Coast grease! So yeah, Augie and Speedy and Ernie Duarwa came in to the studio when we were playing in Austin and they knocked out our song "Somebody". They’ve just got the "groovers” groove!

DK: The record is a big sounding record. Big harmonies.  Big arrangements.  It sounds like it is something that has been planned for a long time and took a while to execute.  How old is the oldest song on this record that you had not recorded before?  What was the moment that you realized you were on the way to making a record…it was happening…and it sounded great?

TM: Well CC first heard "Greatest Show On Hurt" back in the 90s. He and British producer, Tarka Cordell came to the motel room I was living in next to The Jazzy Cajun Club in Lafayette, where we played. After he heard me sing that one, he thought it was so blue that it made him worry I was trying to tell him I was fixin’ to die… That I was on my way out! But it was only just a song! Now here we are all these decades later and the great Nick Lowe hears it and comes in and brings a whole ‘nother verse to that tune. "If it's a fast one that you want - I'll still sing it blue". That’s my life, man… His too!

DK: What do you see is the role of the singer in this world that we are living in right now? Has it changed for you over the years? Have you changed your relationship to your craft?

TM: Just to try and make things a lil better and give folks something to relate to, so that they can take a break from all the anxiety and trials and tribulations in their life. I'm 82 son… Most won't make it this far. I work at it a bit - getting the words and phrasing just right, so it hits the listener right… And I let others like CC help me, when they’re into and feelin’ it… But the music just comes to me. Always has been that way, as long as I can remember. Ya see, “I remember”… That’s a song!

Tommy on James Corden

DK: What are you reading these days?  What is on your nightstand?

TM: “Gene Autry - Public Cowboy” - written by my friend Holly George-Warren. She interviewed me in Nashville last month and was kind enough to mail me a copy of her great book. I loved his music and movies - “Don't Fence Me In”! Gene was really a heavyweight jazz cat, first and foremost.

Also, I devoured Elvis Costello’s “Unfaithful Music”. I picked it up at our road manager Grace’s house when I was staying there, when we first started to make this record. I devoured it! I had no idea that just a short time later Elvis and I would reconnect and start writing together and that my new “signature” hit song “I Ran Down Every Dream” would come from it. Funny, that! But he and I are just two old Catholic boys. He’s a great dude!

I like reading biographies and imagining other people’s lives.

DK: We have lost a lot of artists from those swamp rock days of the past.  Anyone in particular you would like to remember? Anyone that left a true mark on you?

TM: Clint West was my singing partner. We just had a natural blend - didn’t even have to work on or rehearse it. We put out some big records together. His son Josh is now the mayor of Lafayette! 

And of course we lost dear Warren Storm just last year to that damned ol’ Covid. He and I musta played a thousand gigs together… And all the women… And the tax man…Sheesh man, we cut up. Rock n’ roll! Warren was just a big kid like me… Loved music and man could he flat sing. No one sounds like Warren!

We also lost Rockin Rod Bernard last year. Rod introduced me to Carol Skaggs, my long-time girlfriend. For that I’m so grateful.

Then there's Cookie and Lil' Bob and Jimmy Donley. So many great songwriters and singers that really started this whole swamp pop thing.... Or what they now call “Swamp Pop”. We just used to call it South Louisiana rock n roll. Bad boys singing real sweet!

1. That night I got Frogman Henry and Henry Gray to sign my jeans….forever after referred to as “The Henry Pants”

2. OK…that was the 70s…1977 to be exact.