| John McFee | |
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John McFee in Los Angeles, 2010 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | September 9, 1950 |
| Genres | Rock Country Blues Jazz |
| Occupations | Musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, recording engineer |
| Instruments | Guitar, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, Dobro, bass guitar, electric sitar, harmonica, vocals, ukulele, slide guitar |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Associated acts | The Doobie Brothers, Southern Pacific, Elvis Costello, The Grateful Dead, Huey Lewis |
| Website | Doobie Brothers official website |
John McFee (born September 9, 1950, Santa Cruz, California) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist, and long time member of the Doobie Brothers.
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One of his early and least known exploits was playing Hawaiian steel guitar on the long-running C&H sugar commercial. Some of his other early and non-Doobie Brothers work includes playing pedal steel guitar on Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey and Saint Dominic's Preview albums, and recording with many other artists, including Steve Miller on his Fly Like An Eagle album, the Grateful Dead on their from the Mars Hotel album, and recordings with Boz Scaggs, Emmylou Harris, Link Wray, Rick James, Janis Ian, Ricky Scaggs, The Brothers Four, Nick Lowe, Wanda Jackson, Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, Mike Bloomfield, John Michael Montgomery, the Beach Boys, Norton Buffalo, Twiggy, Eikichi Yazawa, and The Kendalls. He played for a number of years with Huey Lewis in the group Clover and also played on Huey Lewis and the News' Sports and Hard at Play albums. McFee also played with Glen Campbell, for his Meet Glen Campbell[1] live video performance.
McFee has played on a number of Elvis Costello's albums, beginning with all the lead and pedal steel guitar work on My Aim is True[2] (perhaps most notably his lead guitar work on "Alison"). He has also continued to perform live with Costello periodically through the years. However, McFee is perhaps best known as a long time member of the Doobie Brothers.
He joined the Doobies in 1979, replacing the departing guitarist Jeff Baxter. McFee is featured on the Doobie's ninth studio album One Step Closer. Although he was not heard to do a lead vocal, he co-wrote the title track with Doobies drummer Keith Knudsen and Carlene Carter, as well as writing the Grammy nominated instrumental "South Bay Strut" with co-drummer Chet McCracken. This album reunited McFee with Doobies producer Ted Templeman, McFee having played on Templeman's first hit record as a producer (Van Morrison's "Wild Night" from the "Tupelo Honey" album).
After the Doobies disbanded in late 1982, McFee and Knudsen formed the country-rock group Southern Pacific, which also included ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook and former Pablo Cruise vocalist David Jenkins. The collaboration scored a number of hits on the country charts, including the number one songs "New Shade of Blue" and "Honey I Dare You", both of which McFee wrote. Southern Pacific was named New Country Group of the Year when they debuted and have been honored by having their name added to the Country Music Association’s Walkway of Stars in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1989 Southern Pacific's music was featured with two songs - "Reno Bound" and "Any Way The Wind Blows" - in the Clint Eastwood film Pink Cadillac. McFee was a writer of both songs, and both reached the top five on the country charts; McFee can be heard on lead vocals on "Any Way The Wind Blows". Though McFee and Knudsen were committed to Southern Pacific, they co-wrote the song "Time Is Here And Gone" on the Doobies' 1989 reunion album Cycles with late Doobies percussionist Bobby LaKind. McFee has received numerous BMI awards as a songwriter.
By 1993, Southern Pacific had disbanded and both men had rejoined the Doobie Brothers. McFee and Knudsen contributed to 2000's Sibling Rivalry, on which McFee sings the lead vocal on the song "Angels of Madness", of which he was a co-writer, and McFee also co-wrote "Five Corners" with Patrick Simmons. In 2007, McFee assumed a role onstage as a relief lead vocalist for ailing Tom Johnston.
In 1995, McFee produced an album by Moby Grape founding member Peter Lewis. Moby Grape was a major influence on the Doobie Brothers, as well as on many other bands including Led Zeppelin and McFee's former group Clover. The collaboration of McFee (who, besides producing and engineering, contributed background vocals, guitars, violin, harmonica, mandolin, and pedal steel) and Lewis resulted in the album Peter Lewis, released by the German record label Taxim. Also making appearances on the album were former Eagles member Randy Meisner, Creedence Clearwater Revival's Stu Cook, Doobie Brothers drummer Keith Knudsen, and Cornelius Bumpus (formerly with the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan). The album received a rarely seen five star review from Rolling Stone magazine in Germany, and in the United States the Rolling Stone review said “In 1967 the great, ill-fated Moby Grape made one of the truly perfect debut albums in rock. 28 years later… Lewis turns up with an equally exquisite solo bow… rich in luminous vocal harmonies and sweet folk-rock lyricism.“
McFee's long-term partnership with Knudsen was terminated by Knudsen's death from pneumonia in 2005.
In 2007, McFee produced and engineered Carlene Carter's album Stronger, playing almost all the instruments himself.
In 2010, he produced and engineered "Hawaiianized" by the legendary singer Pamela Polland. Pamela has performed and recorded with Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Loggins, Jackson Browne, Van Morrison, John Denver, Taj Mahal, Manhattan Transfer and a host of others. In 1970, Pamela joined the famed "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour with Joe Cocker and Leon Russell, appearing on the resulting album as well as in the movie, and her songs have been recorded by the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Helen Reddy, The Byrds, Vicki Carr, Nancy Ames, Anita Carter and Bobby Bare. McFee also contributed on 8 string tenor ukulele, slack key guitar, acoustic and electric Hawaiian steel guitars, nylon string guitar, acoustic bass, keyboards, percussion, vocal arrangements, and background vocals for this project.
Also in 2010, the Doobie Brothers released "World Gone Crazy", on which McFee contributed as recording engineer, as well as playing acoustic guitars, banjo, slide guitar, mandolin, percussion, violin, drums, electric guitars, vocals, and resonator guitars. The New York Post suggested that this album should be "Album of the Year", saying "Now they're back on track, with a smokin' mix of roadhouse boogies, classic rock and country." Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/music/grammy_grabs_mcFWrWMo2bmktXtbbl98ZK#ixzz1Uj6lAeyO
McFee resides near Santa Barbara, California.[3]
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