BGO www.bgo-records.com [Release date 10.11.23]
My first introduction to Mae McKenna was her 1991 album ‘Mirage And Reality’. Bob Harris on his overnight BBC Radio 1 show was a big fan and played the album regularly. I spotted it in a rack in a local record store and when, sadly, the store closed they were selling it off at a reduced price. It was worth a punt; also, Steve Hackett played on a couple of tracks. (See link below).
Rewind to the late seventies and BGO have brought together Mae’s three solo albums for the folk/rock specialist label Transatlantic on 2 CDs. Bonus tracks on Disc 2 feature the 1974 single she cut with her early group Contraband.
The debut Mae McKenna (1975) immediately brings to mind the pure tones of an early Joni or a Judy Collins and is given a classy treatment with orchestral arrangements. It could have easily been made the other side of the pond.
The album is well produced MOR/pop and featured various cover versions including Neil Sedaka’s ‘The Other Side Of Me’ and Elton John’s ‘Elderberry Wine’. As we glean from the liner note, with the benefit of hindsight it seems that Mae now realises just what a good album this was from a vocal point of view. She was only 18 but it could be argued the style was very much “old before your time” and it was not a direction she wished to pursue.
It is perhaps no surprise that the follow-ups Everything That Touches Me (1976) and Walk On Water (1977) went full-on West Coast MOR with American producer Ritchie Gold who drafted in ace sessioner Elliot Randall. They again feature mainly cover versions and with a country pop flavour permeating the 1976 release.
In truth the arrangements are all very safe and throughout you wonder what might have happened if Ritchie and Randall had imported a Steely Dan cool to the proceedings. In this respect ‘Walk On Water’ only really hints at what might have been with the tracks ‘Driven Away’ and ‘Love Me Tomorrow’ (written by Toto’s David Paich) but the rest is a little lightweight.
Mae came from the McKenna dynasty, sister of musical siblings Hugh (Sensational Alex Harvey Band) and Ted (Rory Gallagher, Michael Schenker), and John who contributed the only original songs to these albums.
After this flourish of activity in the late seventies, McKenna went on to session work, singing backing vocals on most of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman hits and working with many top name artists. She also toured with the Jesus Christ Superstar musical.
She later re-started her recording career with an album of original material that preempted the popularity of Celtic/pop crossover as popularised by The Corrs in the 1990s. Since that time she has continued to record more Celtic/Americana themed pieces including 1997′s ‘Shore To Shore’ and she’s currently a vocal coach. Her philosophy chimes with another fine vocalist, Norway’s Liv Kristine, who after some success in a band and with solo albums moved into a similar sphere.
These three handsomely resurrected albums show a singer plucked from a folk rock band and still finding her musical direction. Evidently Mae McKenna distanced herself from these works for some years but with age comes wisdom and we can all benefit from re-assessment. ***1/2
Review by David Randall
Mirage And Reality (Albums That Time Forgot, 2020)
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