DAVE'S DIARY - 27 AUGUST 2006 - JASON MCCOY INTERVIEW
JAS0N MCCOY - PLANES AND ROAD HAMMERS
"I'm a Road Man, a load man/ 18 wheels and a serious plan/ a white knuckled steel gear jammer/ a rig jockey highway slammer." - I'm A Road Hammer - Jason McCoy-Denny Carr.
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When
Canadian singer-songwriter Jason McCoy first toured here in January
of 2002 his alternate transport was flying his own plane. The singer's love affair with trucks was catalysed by constant touring in Canada and his 2006 Global Country Artist Award in Nashville in June. |
"I used
to fly small planes locally but I haven't done my medical lately,"
McCoy, 36, told Nu Country TV on the eve of his debut on C 31 with the
Road Hammers.
"I won't get to fly again for a few years."
Instead the singer, who toured here nationally in 2005 with trucking troubadour
Adam Harvey, plans a return in 2007.
"We formed Road Hammers as a Travelling Wilburys meet Highwaymen
type band," the singer revealed.
"We meet on the highway and eat at the same truck stops as our audiences."
EAST BOUND AND DOWN
| McCoy
and Denny Carr wrote their title track, accompanied by a video clip. "We made the clip in Toronto and California," McCoy said. The singer also wrote four other new songs - Overdrive, Keep On Truckin', Call It A Day and Nashville Bound. But it was the old Jerry Reed song East Bound And Down - the Smoky & The Bandit theme - that earned a video as second single. "We made it in Alberta, about two hours out of Calgary," Jason added. |
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"We
shut down an abandoned dirt race track and had this mud fight with our
singer Clayton Bellamy. We got all that on film with the band and extras."
The Road Hammers video impacted heavily.
"It has really taken off with these young kids wearing trucker hats
and tee shirts," he added.
"They're dusting off these cool old movies. The demographic is changing from hard core truckers to 20 year old girls which is fine by us."
CHRIS KNIGHT REVAMP
The Road
Hammers also covered The Hammer Going Down from the back catalogue
of hard-edged country singer Chris Knight who hails from Slaughter, Kentucky,
and scored widespread exposure on Nu Country FM in its halcyon days.
"Yes, that was also on the Black Dog movie soundtrack,"
McCoy said.
"I didn't sing it particularly well. I wanted Clayton to sing it
and it came up great. When I was a kid I had a vinyl album Diesel Smoke,
Dangerous Curves with great old trucking songs. So all through last year
I kept my antenna up and listened to trucking song to add to our originals."
One of those was the 1995 song Heart With Four Wheel Drive - penned
by former boxing champ Paul Thorn who also won acclaim for fighting Roberto
Duran.
4 Runner - a short-lived band - made the charts with it about a decade
ago.
"I didn't hear their version," McCoy said.
"I heard the original by Paul Thorn whose song 1,000 Pound Jesus
was cut by Sawyer Brown. I considered doing that on one of my solo albums.
He's a great songwriter. He has so many great songs."
The Road Hammers also recorded the vintage Del Reeves hit Girl On The
Billboard that was penned by Walter Haynes and Hank Mills.
GARY
ALLAN DUET
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McCoy
is best known in Australia for his duet with chart topping Californian
surfing cowboy Gary Allan on the Jim Lauderdale song Doing Time
In Bakersfield. Jason made his Melbourne debut with Lauderdale, Kim Richey, Fred Eaglesmith and Audrey Auld Mezera at the Corner Hotel. McCoy was showcasing his 2000 disc Honky Tonk Sonatas album that also featured 10 Million Teardrops. He later toured with Harvey in 2004 to promote fourth album Sins, Lies And Angels on Open Road and distributed here by Universal. |
The singer
was born in the tiny Ontario town Minesing, and transplanted to Camrose,
Alberta, at the age of five where he was reared on his dad's country music
collection.
McCoy has released a Greatest Hits (1995-2005) disc while he works on
his fifth solo album.
"It will be very traditional," confessed McCoy who has been
wed for eight years to a woman he first courted 13 years ago.
"Some of the songs were written five years ago. One of the songs,
Say It's Not True, is a traditional murder ballad. It has more
of a bluegrass feel like Alison Krauss. You don't know whether he killed
the woman or maybe himself. It has an open ending."
Albums
" Jason McCoy" (1995)
" Playin' for Keeps" (1997)
" Honky Tonk Sonotas" (2000)
" Sins, Lies and Angels" (2003)
" The Road Hammers" (2005) (With The Road Hammers)
" Greatest Hits, 1995-2005"(2005)