A Conversation with Anne McCue  (continued)

PM: But as amazing as it was to get asked--and it is amazing--on twenty-three shows of Lucinda's, then a Richard Thompson thing fell into line, too. How, where, when?

AM: Well, this was in January, and we played a couple of dates with him. I can't remember if it was two or three. And I'm not exactly sure how that came about. But I believe it was because I played with Lucinda. A few things have come from that. And yeah, I thought that was a really good double bill, actually.

PM: I can imagine.

AM: Because it was just him solo and me solo, first. And I don't know, there was something yin and yang about it that was really cool. I really enjoyed that. I'm not putting myself on the same level as Richard Thompson, but there's something similar about us in our performance style, or whatever. We both have a serious approach to guitar work, and I think we're both probably more songwriters than singers, as such. You know what I mean?

PM: [laughs] Although I certainly like the voices of both people. But then, I don't usually like the leading actor. I usually like the character actors better in a movie, and you know...

AM: Hmm.

PM: You're more my kind of voices.

AM: Yeah.

PM: I don't know that there's anybody we find more fascinating than Richard Thompson. I think he is the very best solo guy out there on the planet at the moment. So we're keen to hear anything about him. Because we're fascinated with him from afar, what's he like up close? I've never met the man.

AM: Yeah, he's just an ordinary English bloke.

PM: [laughs]

AM: Quite charming, actually.

PM: Yeah?

AM: Yeah. And he looks really good in his beret and black suit that he wears, you know. There's something really cool about that.

PM: An impeccably spoken person.

AM: He's very sharp in his outlook. He's very perceptive. But he wears shorts and sneakers just like anyone else. A very casual sort of fellow.

PM: And he's not traveling on a bus, I shouldn't think--or is he?

AM: No, because it's just him and his--

PM: His soundman, with the Haliburton that's got the Sunrise preamp inside, the big transformer thing. Do you know what I mean?

AM: I didn't really see that. I don't know.

PM: The last time I saw him, he had this huge transformer looking tube preamp that Sunrise makes, the people who made his pickup. He had this big Norse looking dude who carried the transformer thing in a rock and roll briefcase, who mixed the sound. He blew everybody's sound away at the whole festival. Everybody sounded like folkies plugged into a direct box, and his sound was blowing down the trees on the grounds of this Jersey festival.

AM: He was a nice guy. He helped with my sound, actually.

PM: Really?

AM: Yeah, because you go into places, and you're at the mercy of the soundman. Actually, I've been very fortunate on these opening slots, I've run into some great people who were very helpful. Richard's man was one of them, I can't remember his name at the moment...

PM: So did you get to hang with Richard at all? I'm sorry to be gossipy, but when it comes to Richard Thompson, it's hard to glean any details from anywhere.

AM: He seems protective of his personal space. We had a brief chat, but it was quite a little stint.

PM: How many gigs did you do with him?

AM: I think it was two or three.

PM: Where?

AM: It was in California, Petaluma.

PM: Petaluma, that's where Mesa Boogie is. Where did you play?

AM: McNear's Mystic.

PM: I opened for Van Morrison there one time.

AM: Wow. That's cool.

PM: Yeah, sure. That's a nice room.

AM: Yeah, I really liked it. And the theater in Santa Cruz was really cool too.

PM: Santa Cruz... Ah, two really nice towns, Petaluma and Santa Cruz.

Let's see...one of your songs was used on Dawson's Creek a while ago. That was a cool break of a different kind. How did that happen? Do you know?

AM: I think that my manager really did some work, peddling, and he got that just by, you know, making phone calls.

PM: Through a music supervisor, a TV thing.

AM: Yeah. And I had a song on UC: Undercover. And Jonathan Weiss was the music supervisor there. It was one of those real state-of-the-art, contemporary looking sort of shows, on NBC.

PM: Yeah. But those cuts, as cool as they are, do they lead to anything else? In your case, did they connect you to anybody or anything else?

AM: Well, I was a featured artist on the Dawson's Creek website. So I think a lot of people came to my website, and quite a few people bought the CD from it. And it's an international thing, too, so that's good.

PM: Right. So that was a good bump. You were the featured artist on the Dawson's Creek site. That had to generate quite a bit of hits and some sales in your direction. That's a good one.

AM: Yeah.  continue

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