By Dave Parsons
40 some years ago, well 43 of them to be exact, I got to play disc jockey every day Monday through Friday. My high school had the only actual broadcasting radio station for those wanting to go into the field. It was 91.9 FM and we despite only having 100 watts of radio power, (we did reach a few miles away as we were on a hill!), the station was on the mailing list for a few major record labels.
I grew up on country music, and tried to slip some into my show whenever I could. One day a single that the Atco record label had sent to the station arrived, by this group named McGuffey Lane. I did this “make it or break it” segment, and being we had very few listeners, I would decide the fate of the song. I still remember putting this record on the turntable, hitting the play knob, and hearing
“I was in Austin when you called me…..I noticed your voice it sounded strange.”
and then came the harmonica, and the steel guitar. Despite being on a mostly rock label, this was what country music sounded like in the 1970’s and 1980’s and there was hardly a show of mine until I graduated in 1983, that I didn’t play Long Time Lovin’ You. I remember playing the flip side of that single, People Like You, a few times. It took the commercial radio stations a few weeks before they played them both, and after seeing advertisements that McGuffey Lane were opening for acts like Alabama and Charlie Daniels, I thought they were on their way to the top. I bought all their music available and waited for them to play my hometown.
(The history on that first single and album is they released both on their own Paradise Island Records label in 1980, and sold like 40,000 records, which is unheard of in those days for an independent act. Atco Records signed them and re-issued the album, and it sold another 175,000 copies.)
Over the next 40 some years, I would have that song come up on my YouTube feed from time to time. I did research on them and wished desperately I had gone to Ohio State to party in my college years. It seems that they were THE band in the High Street circuit of bars in those days, and built a huge fan base.
Earlier this year, they announced their 50th Anniversary tour, and I was happy to see a show scheduled in Zanesville, Ohio. Secrest Auditorium is a great old refurbished venue, and a throwback to what was always great about a sit-down concert show before the new places crammed as many seats as possible, into rooms with no acoustics, and charge $9.00 for a pretzel and cola! It is also the only venue that ever made me my own media credential with my name and the show date on it!!!
Bands change a lot in 50 years, and moreso the audience that knows the music. I have seen audiences talk through the first hour of a band on a 50th tour, until they get to that string of hits at the end of the set. This group almost seemed like they had been part of that OSU crowd and were coming back around for one more round.
McGuffey Lane has three original members, and they took the stage to a welcoming round of applause and from the first notes of I’m in Jamaica, the party was on. The mix was good, allowing the vocals and harmony to lead the music, and the band members looked at each other with that smile and nod that says it’s going to be a good evening.
They went seamless from one song to another from their album releases. Giving past singles like What’ll You Do About Me? and Bartender another play, like you would puling a box of records out of the closet and one at a time tell stories about them. Although most of the set list were originals from their career, they brought in some covers like Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road , and Linda Ronstadt’s When Will I Be Loved?
In an age when a theater concert is 13 songs and an hour or so, McGuffey Lane declared it was intermission, and would be back for a second half in 20 minutes. For the record, my 20 oz bottle of Pepsi and soft pretzel only set me back $5.00 total. You have to love a venue like this.
True to their word, McGuffey Lane started the second half with their 1982 Top 50 country hit, Making a Living’s Been Killing Me, 20 minutes later. The crowd who was still filing back in from the lobby, enjoyed the handclapper, and found a little room to dance to The Legend. As the band was moving into the songs they danced to on High Street, the audience was finding a partner, and turning the side sections of the theater into a dance hall.
Long Time Loving You led into Stay in Love with You with an extended jam session of the band. People Like You, was next and brought the biggest response and sing along from the crowd. The two-hour performance was capped with Ain’t No One (To Love You Like I Do).
After two hours and 24 songs, McGuffey Lane let it be known they would be in the lobby to meet everyone, until the last person went home. For well over another hour, stories were being shared, pictures taken and these folks got to make another memory with the band these folks had loved for 50 years.
There are a rash of 50th Anniversary Tours these days, and some of them are a letdown. The songs are a good bit slower, and a good key or two lower. However, may it be known that the band McGuffey Lane is still going strong and giving their audience what they came to hear and see….and you can’t ask for more than that!
McGuffey Lane Setlist:
1.) Jamaica In My Mind
2.) I Want to Be a Bartender
3.) Copperhead Road
4.) Let Me Take You to The Rodeo
5.) Breakaway
6.) Sunshine
7.) Melissa
8.) Old Taylor
9.) What’ll You Do About Me
10.) Music Man
11.) Bert
12.) When Will I Be Loved
13.) Rocky Top
Set 2
14.) Making a Living’s Been Killing Me
15.) The Legend
16.) Railroad Song
17.) Tennessee
18.)Don’t You Think About Me (When I’m Gone)
19.) It’s a Good Day
20.) Long Time Lovin’ You
21.) Stagecoach
22.) Stay In Love With You
23.) People Like You
24.) Ain’t No One (To Love You Like I Do)
