Country-rock star creates intimate atmosphere with personal stories, emotional song choices
Hundreds showed up to support McCain in his two-hour set, filling the amphitheater bench seating and overflowing onto the surrounding lawn and walkway. McCain and his three-man band played a solid set, pleasing fans with old favorites and proving that he is much more than 1998's "I'll Be."
Hootie and the Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan joined McCain and the band on stage for a cover of The Band's "The Weight," with Bryan laying down a pretty solid guitar solo before heading back to his seat in the middle of the crowd.
McCain said, "If it wasn't for Hootie and the Blowfish, I wouldn't have a career," preluding "The Weight" with a little anecdote about how they met when he was a student at USC — for one semester.
"After one semester, I realized the university and I had nothing to offer each other," McCain said.
The all-American concert stuck to McCain's roots for the most part, but it wasn't without some musical surprises. The songster threw the chorus of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" into the performance of his original "I've Seen A Love," pulling off a nice country/rock/reggae collaboration.
The rocker set a laid-back and very intimate vibe, despite the hundreds of people circled around the small, tent-covered stage. He threw in jokes, tales of the band on the road and stories behind each of the set's songs.
McCain introduced his popular song "Gramercy Park Hotel" with, "I used to have to give my license to get the light bulbs, and now it's been renovated right out of my price range."
He talked about exploring his Scottish roots and reflected on a visit to his uncle's old pool hall "Barry's on the Hill" where he devastatingly realized, "I can never be in Earth, Wind & Fire, because I'm not black."
It was clear that the Edwin McCain Band is a tight-knit group of musicians. The frontman joked about drummer Tromell Blassingame's nickname, "The Jamboni," and gave a shout-out to Craig Shields on the saxophone, who has been playing with McCain for 21 years.
The show wrapped up before McCain returned to stage, solo, to have a little humor-infused heart-to-heart with the audience and an acoustic, raw and moving final song.
McCain talked about his wife — who he profiled throughout the night — sharing with audience stories about her service work in Ecuador and an incident with a chain saw in carry-on luggage. He was adopted as a child, and told the audience about his two sons, who are seven months apart, leaving the audience to do the math.
"How do you have two kids seven months apart?" McCain said, "You tell your wife you want to adopt."
The crowd was overcome with McCain's overwhelmingly genuine persona throughout the night, and it all rang true during the closing song, as couples swayed to the heartfelt ballad, a story of personal struggle and love come true.