The Songs of Sean McConnell

In Texas country music circles, the word “Nashville” invites scorn. The Texans accuse the music business in Tennessee of creating musical trash—bubblegum pop, or inauthentic country music. But Texans are smart enough to adopt someone from Nashville who shares their demand for musical authenticity.

Sean McConnell is a Yankee, a singer and songwriter who developed his chops in the coffee houses in Boston before landing in Nashville for college and then a highly successful career as a songwriter for Warner/Chappell Publishing.

Texas country crooner Wade Bowen landed a job in Nashville to write songs too, about a decade ago, and became acquainted with McConnell’s style that fits Bowen just fine.

Bowen recorded what has become McConnell’s signature song, “Somewhere Beautiful”, a ballad about the challenges of growing up in Middle Class America, making mistakes, and learning from them.

The hook:

Take my hand and let me pull you,
Out of the blindness of your weary soul,
To somewhere beautiful.

“It’s still my favorite song to play live,” McConnell said Thursday in our interview. “The fans have really grasped onto the meaning of the song.” The song opens with the singer peering down at a scene of young people at a street party from a hotel room. McConnell said the inspiration of the setting scene was when he was on vacation with his family during spring break in the Florida Panhandle. After setting the scene, the singer offers to guide a young person, presumably someone at the street party, to avoid the mistakes that the singer made growing older. McConnell said that once he was inspired by the street scene, he wrote the song in about an hour.

Below: Sean McConnell and Wade Bowen duet, "Somewhere Beautiful" at Hill's Cafe in Austin:

Wade Bowen recorded it and that was the start of McConnell’s introduction into the lucrative Texas country touring circuit. McConnell also credits a New Braunfels radio station disc jockey named Mattson Rainer at KNBT who discovered McConnell at a live show and played his songs for many to hear along the I-35 corridor, the heart of the modern Texas country music movement.

McConnell’s “Reckless Love” was Rainer’s first favorite song. McConnell said the song has a bluesy, soulful, or even “swamp blues” vibe to it. “It’s exciting to vocally dig into,” he said.

Below, Sean McConnell performs "Reckless Love":

Next came “Novocaine”, a song with a driving beat about a workingman. “It’s about having a long, hard day and having a person to come home to that is there for you,” McConnell said. “Be my Novocaine,” the song goes.

McConnell is about to release a new record in a few months. One song on it is very special to McConnell because it’s dedicated to his wife. “I wrote it for our 10-year anniversary,” he said. The song was made more special a month ago when the first time he played it with his wife in the audience was New Year’s Eve. There, McConnell opened for Greg Allman and the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Georgia’s capitol city. The title of the song is “The Best We’ve Ever Been.” McConnell said it is a “very honest song.”

McConnell’s songs have been recorded by much of Nashville’s royalty, including Rascal Flats, Tim McGraw, and Brad Paisley. In the Texas scene, Eli Young Band, Randy Rogers, and of course, Wade Bowen have recorded his songs. He also wrote a jingle for an Overstock.com television commercial. And Meatloaf, who earned fame in the late 1970s with his classic Bat Out of Hell album, recorded three of McConnell’s songs on Meatloaf’s most recent record.

McConnell said he tries to write a song every day. When not on tour, he can be found with his guitar hashing out a melody and the words soon flow. A trained musician, he prefers using chords that offer a fuller sound, usually by adding a 7^th or 9^th to major chords.

His live shows are interactive with the audience. You’ll see and hear everyone singing along with his most popular songs. For new songs, McConnell will usually introduce them and invite the audience to understand the song’s meaning or purpose.

His live show will draw a large crowd in San Angelo, where his popularity is high. That is why he agreed to perform twice this week at Blaine’s Pub.

His first show is Sunday night, Jan. 31, starting at 8 p.m. A second show will happen Wednesday, Feb. 3, also at 8 p.m.

Presale tickets are available online for the Sunday show and the Wednesday show.

There's more about Sean McConnell at his website.