By: Mick Price

Mick Price — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 01:29:00 +0000

Hi Mike
My first recollection of seeing you perform was on a series of live performances on the ABC back in the early ’70s, featuring (I think?) Graeme Lowndes?, Margaret Roadknight?, and others who’s names I don’t recall. It seems I remember you playing “High Flying Bird” on that show, and I marvelled at your playing ability as a 12 year old who had just been given his first guitar… Man, I still wish I could play like that! Not long after that I was given your latest album at that time, “Ask Any Dancer”, for Xmas, and, although I still own it, I’m sure I nearly wore it out at the time. Such a diverse range of songs on that album, but my particular favourite, and still is, is “Traces”. I love the song, but particularly the incredible sax solo through the ending. One of the best ever!
I always found it difficult to categorise your music, so I didn’t try. I would happily have you on a playlist with Bowie, Elton John, Slade, Beatles etc, but one thing I would never categorise you as was country… The second album that I purchased was “An Evening With Mike McClellan”, mainly on the strength of what I had seen on the ABC program previously mentioned, and, Man, what a great concert! I was fortunate enough to experience the show live a few years later, taking along a girl who is now my wife – luckily, as I think that she fell in love a little bit with you that night! That was at the old Regent Theatre in Brisbane, and she, being more of a girl from the country, could really relate to your stories about traveling and teaching out in the country areas. Her favourite song remains “Saturday Dance” because she attended quite a lot of those events. The great thing about your concerts is that we come away feeling that we know who you are, both through your songs, and your stage presence.
The last time I saw you live was at Twin Towns with Kevin Johnson and Doug Ashdown, both great performers, but I think the audience would have settled for a lot more Mike! We talked after the show, where you directed me to the Hooks, Lines, and Thinkers website, but I lost track of you until recently. Having just downloaded “Spotify” I thought I would challenge it to find one of your songs. How happy was I to find your new album on there! I have since purchased it and can’t wait for you to release more of the back catalogue. I have transferred all my old vinyl to MP3, and while it is possible to clean the sound up a little, there is no substitute for the original masters.
Thanks for being a great Australian songwriter, and I look forward to hearing more of you over time… a performance in Townsville maybe… Cheers!

By: jennyt

jennyt — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 01:42:29 +0000

Hi. I have just bought your CDs as I have been looking for a copy of “The one I love” for a long time – mostly one I could put on my ipod. I will use the CDs to transfer – the usual. As it happens, I am not a great fan of country music, simply because it is not generally the type of music I like. I tend to not listen to anything that caries the label. However, I have several C&W songs, all that I like very much. They tend to be songs that are a little different to the basic C&W and I wonder if it is not time to change the name of the Tamworth festival? C&W music is now so diverse that the change of name may well be enough to entice people with enjoyment in more types of music, to attend. Anyway, thank you for your music and I am looking forward to listening to your CDs -

By: kwiaciarnia online

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