Lester Winchester McKendree - They Got It All (2026)

Tracklist

01. I'm No Amateur
02. Delaney And The Ditch
03. They Got It All
04. Surf The Allman Ballroom
05. Down The Same Street
06. Baby's Carburetor
07. Bad Mantras Explicit
08. Dylan Ain't Spillin'
09. The Right Pose
10. Along With The Sunshine

Tucked somewhere inside the criss-crossing careers of three veteran Nashville musicians is the story behind the album in your hands, They Got It All. The title could be misread as braggadocio, but if drummer Jimmy Lester, bassist/vocalist Mark W. Winchester and keyboardist Kevin McKendree were the type to entertain pretentions, their debut recording would likely have taken on towering and fussy ambitions rather than the nonchalant, no-frills approach heard here.

It’s right in line with Winchester’s laid-back philosophy as a writer of lean, plainspoken tunes, performed with a basics-bred mentality on the fretboard that belies his authoritative command of it. Inspired by Morphine bassist/frontman Mark Sandman’s minimalist bass work, Winchester strung up a Silvertone bass Sandman-style, using only two strings─an imposed limitation that opened fresh songwriting possibilities. His purchase of a recently issued Sandman model two-string bass sparked a burst of creative juice resulting in the bulk of the material featured here.

With this recording, Lester Winchester McKendree emerges as a full-fledged collective, possessing an organically originated chemistry that developed as its three members gradually crossed musical paths while working as pro musicians. When McKendree hit town to take a job with Lee Roy Parnell, Winchester had been playing upright bass alongside the cream of roots-based sidemen in Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers, while Lester held ongoing positions with Webb Wilder and acclaimed Texas songwriter and Americana architect Billy Joe Shaver.

The drummer and bassist’s natural compatibility as roots-savvy kindred spirits with primal instincts harks back to their earliest acquaintance in a pair of retro-styled bands: The Planet Rockers, whose raw-boned rockabilly fare pivoted on Winchester’s doghouse bass, and surf-centered combo Los Straitjackets, fueled by Lester’s ferocious drumming. As bandmates on this project, Lester and Winchester kindle the unbridled power and drive of those heady days, now burnished with the refinement and versatility that time and experience bring.

On the collaboratively written instrumental “Surf The Allman Ballroom,” Lester’s surf-informed playing is propulsive, with fills that thrill. Though versed in styles well beyond the vintage backbeat he masterfully provided for Los Straitjackets, his sharply executed Ventures-style snare drum intros and licks create standout moments on the album.
Winchester’s rockabilly bona fides would serve him well in recurring stints on stage and in the studio with Brian Setzer. When the founding Stray Cats guitarist tapped both Winchester and McKendree for his Rockabilly Riot project, the two players further solidified the musical connection they’d previously enjoyed with bluesman and later SteelDrivers founder Mike Henderson. Winchester had first met McKendree, then moonlighting from his main gig as bandleader for Delbert McClinton, while both logged time in Henderson’s Bluebloods during his must-see Monday night residency at legendary listening room The Bluebird Cafe.

The rollicking racket they made with Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot is revisited on the blue-collar-championing “Delaney And The Ditch” and “Baby’s Carburetor,” a high-octane workout greased with witty hot-rod innuendo. Winchester’s two-string plucking calls forth a phantom rhythm guitar, as McKendree enhances the ensemble effect, adding piercing rock ’n’ roll piano punctuations. An exhilarating soloist when so enlisted, McKendree more often makes simple choices that reinforce Winchester’s bass lines and expand on them with tasteful splashes of color. His chops behind the console (his production work includes Delbert McClinton’s Grammy-winning Tall, Dark and Handsome album, and he serves as engineer here) give the band the rare distinction of being a fully self-contained unit.
The trio first began tackling Winchester’s original songs after all three players landed on the same gig behind E Street Band co-founder Garry Tallent, who would routinely spotlight his band members in his sets. Winchester, digging the sound they made together on his featured tunes, would later recruit them for local club dates showcasing his solo catalog. Their mutual strengths as intuitive, feel-based players proved especially fulfilling, making it a no-brainer to hit the studio together.

A bystander hanging in the control room for these sessions would witness the ease of buddies on a musical Boys Day Out: genial, relaxed interaction, an unforced common vision and the quick, focused workmanship typical of such journeyman players. As Winchester presented his new songs for the first time, the threesome nailed each within a couple of takes, with few overdubs or fixes. Lester’s post-playback decision to further distill a rhythmic pattern did call for a quick, get-’er-done third take of the Morphine-reminiscent “Bad Mantras.” A warning about the psychological quicksand of negativity, the hypnotic track peaks with Lester’s manic bongo overdub summoning a voodoo vibe on the extended outro.

Winchester’s distinctive writing displays taut and melodic songcraft while favoring unconventional and inventive topics ranging from the dark psyche probing of “Mantras” to the humorously offbeat “Dylan Ain’t Spillin’” and the revealing, middle-age-weary waltz “The Right Pose.” “I’m No Amateur,” a brisk midtempo attractively garbed with Latin-flavored piano and warm B-3, keeps the alert listener guessing, as the hubris of its cynical protagonist dwells alongside a veteran performer’s sincere wish to bless with his musical gifts.

On the steady-rolling title track, Winchester chronicles a gradual victory over underestimation (including his own), rightly acknowledging his innate musical assets: I got time and I got tone / It got delivered with these bones. Here, those bones, along with the sinew of his skilled co-stars, form a skeletal structure supporting songs that not only stand up to such sparse presentation, they in fact shine within it. Both musically and sonically, They Got It All is a marvel of economy that leaves out plenty but lacks nothing.