Mac Curtis - Songs I Wish I Wrote (2011/2015)

Mac Curtis began his career in the mid 1950’s with a sequence of singles that later became top rockabilly classics. Later in the 1960’s he started a career as a radio DJ and became a respected and nationally known figure in the country music industry. In the next decade he joined the rockabilly revival circuit and created a steady stream of releases and performances in rockabilly concerts in the USA, Europe and Japan ever since.

Although best known for his 1950’s rockabilly recordings - the frenziest of the era - cutting a country album is nothing new for Mac. In the late 1960’s his stint on Epic and GRT labels produced two excellent country LP’s plus a string of charting singles. When proposed to record a new country album, he stated only half-jokingly “Actually I’ve been thinking about cutting a hillbilly album”. Not quite hillbilly, but rather a set of what you can call 1960’s uptown country is what the new album turned out to be.

The album, titled “Songs I Wish I Wrote” by the artist, is a compilation of carefully selected and arranged covers and fresh interpretations of some of Mac Curtis’ own recordings. The covers include treats like “Beautiful Annabel Lee” and “Singer Of Sad Songs” from the Waylon Jennings songbook, Bob Dylan’s “One More Time”, “Restless” by Carl Perkins, “This Time Tomorrow” by Sonny Curtis, and “So What Let It Rain” by Lefty Frizzell, and of the old Mac Curtis repertoire we’ll hear “Sunshine Man”, “100 Pounds Of Honey”, and “Turn Away From Me”.

The album was cut in Finland with an innovative team of musicians. The same crew has been in charge for the two latest and highly acclaimed albums by another veteran rocker Hayden Thompson. The recording location, an old cowhouse converted into a top-of-the-line studio on an operational farm, is surely an ideal setting for recording a classy country album with a dash of hillbilly flavor.

01. Mac Curtis - Singer of Sad Songs
02. Mac Curtis - This Time Tomorrow
03. Mac Curtis - 100 Pounds of Honey
04. Mac Curtis - Sunshine Man
05. Mac Curtis - Turn Away from Me
06. Mac Curtis - One More Night
07. Mac Curtis - Stay Love
08. Mac Curtis - Beautiful Annabel Lee
09. Mac Curtis - So What Let It Rain
10. Mac Curtis - Drowning All My Sorrows
11. Mac Curtis - If You Want to Be My Woman
12. Mac Curtis - Restless
13. Mac Curtis - You've Turned Down the Lights