“When people listen to my music, I hope they hear something they can identify with. I hope they learn a little about life, a little about me, and a little about themselves.”
Singer-songwriter Joe McClure grew up around music. He grew up working at radio stations in Georgia, doing everything from taking out the trash to being a summer disc jockey. Ultimately, he was president and CEO of eight stations – but he still did all the programming. “The music is what was important to me.”
Joe’s first real full-length CD, Let My Life Be A Song, was released in the spring of 2009. Its 13 tracks are a wonderful mix of folk, country, and rock. His second CD, Life Happens, is even more ambitious in its span of the aforementioned genres, adding Americana, pop, inspiration, and humor. “Genres don’t matter to me much anymore. The song makes its own genre,” Joe points out.
While Let My Life Be A Song is the culmination of years spent writing and learning to tell stories with his music, Life Happens is more thematic. Joe’s songs explore the unique and unpredictable directions life takes and examine how we all react to those twists and turns differently. Songs like “Going Back to Georgia” and “Rest” lend a gravity to one’s roots in that no matter where you go, you don’t forget where, or who, you came from. Stories of less-than-fortunate situations arelaced with humor in songs about a wily jokester in the hospital waiting room (“Waiting on the Vampires”) or a gullible Waffle House patron’s ill-fated encounter with love (“Waffle House Love”). And when life is inordinately heavy, drawing strength from loved ones (“Carry My Load”) or faith (“A Bigger Plan”) saves us. The album’s creative instrumentation helps layer the illustrations of Joe’s lyrics, weaving together a beautiful glimpse at life and how we approach it.