Tom McRae

Infobox musical artist
Name = Tom McRae

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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Jeremy Thomas McRae Blackall
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Born = 19 March 1969, Essex, England
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URL = [http://www.tommcrae.com/ www.tommcrae.com]
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Tom McRae (born Jeremy Thomas McRae Blackall, 19 March 1969, Essex) is a singer-songwriter from England.

Career

The son of two Church of England vicars [ [http://www.incendiarymag.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1513 interview with Incendiary Magazine] ] he grew up in Chelmsford. McRae sang in the church choir and as a teen would borrow his mother's guitar. [ [http://www.showmehowtoplay.com/video/tom_mcrae_interview/? video of Tom McRae interview on showmehowtoplay.com] ] . Initially trying to emulate his heroes, Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Kate Bush, U2, he began to write his own songs and develop his own style. Age 18, he went to London Guildhall University to study politics and government Cite web|url=http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=TOM|MCRAE&sql=11:3fdovwxia9ek~T1|title=Tom McRae biography at All Music Guide | accessdate= 2006-12-02 ] and was soon forming bands. A chance meeting with recording engineer & record producer Roger Bechirian, (Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Carlene Carter, The Undertones), led to a working relationship. Bechirian helped to shape McRae's soft-spoken sound, which later gained McRae a deal with Dave Bates's db Records, (db/BMG records). In 2000, director Scott Walker chose McRae to perform at the highly acclaimed Meltdown (festival) in the Royal Festival Hall. [ [http://www.undo.net/cgi-bin/undo/pressrelease/fpressrelease.pl?id=961512664&day= press release on undo.net] ] McRae's confessional, self-titled debut appeared in autumn 2001, during the height of the new acoustic movement and earned him comparisons to Nick Drake and Bob Dylan. Critics raved and McRae gained nominations for the Mercury Prize and the BRIT Award for Best Newcomer. By then, McRae was working with Oliver ("Oli") Kraus, cellist, and in 2003 was joined by Olli Cunningham on keyboards. McRae's second album, "Just Like Blood", was released in the U.K. in February 2003 produced by Ben Hillier, whose credits include Elbow, Martha Wainwright and Blur. In 2004, McRae was nominated for a GRAMMY Award. Following this, he moved to California, where he wrote and recorded his next album, "All Maps Welcome," which was released in May 2005.

In 2005, McRae supported Tori Amos on the UK leg of her "Original Sinsuality" tour. Having played many times in the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles and having been one of the artists on the first U.S Hotel Cafe Tour, McRae brought the Tour to the UK in 2006, introducing his fans to many other singer-songwriters which most notably include Steve Reynolds, Joe Purdy, Cary Brothers, and Jim Bianco. The Hotel Cafe Tour saw the artists participating in each others' songs. The tour also featured a variety of special guests, including Kathryn Williams, Justin Currie, Colin MacIntyre and Aqualung.

McRae's fourth album, "King of Cards", was recorded in Suffolk and released in May 2007.

In spring 2008, McRae once again brought the Hotel Cafe Tour to the UK, and for the first time, also took it to continental Europe. This time he was accompanied by Cary Brothers, Brian Wright, Catherine Feeny, Greg Laswell, Jim Bianco and Jason (or Dr.) Kanakis. Again, there were special guests at each location, including Eddi Reader and Turin Brakes.

Currently, McRae is working on his fifth album as well as working on a number of other projects. He is a guest vocalist for band "Wills and the Willing" at a number of festivals in the UK this summer and has a headline slot at the Offset festival in August. [ [http://www.gibsoneurope.com/smartsite.dws?id=12594 Tom McRae interview with Gibson's guitars] ] In the autumn he is scheduled to play at the Lake of Stars International Malawi Music Festival [ [http://jam2day.net/news/tom_mcrae_lake_stars.htm jam2day website] ] and is touring the North Eastern states of America and Canada. McRae is recognized for his intelligent and sensitive songwriting, his haunting vocals and the energy and warmth which he puts into his live performances. [ [http://www.tommcrae.com/forum Tom McRae's website forum] ]

Discography

Albums

*"Tom McRae" October 2, 2000 (Arista)
*"Just Like Blood" U.K.: February 18, 2003 U.S.: September 21, 2004 (Nettwerk)
*"All Maps Welcome" U.K.: May 2, 2005 U.S.: May 31, 2005 (RCA)
*"King of Cards" May 14, 2007 (V2)

Other projects

McRae contributed music to the soundtracks of the movies "Uno" (2004) and "Unsuitable" (2005). And his music has featured in the film "The Bubble" by Gal Uchovsky.He also contributed a strikingly melancholic cover version of "Wonderful Christmastime" to a Christmas compilation CD: "Maybe This Christmas Tree" produced in 2004.

In August 2005, McRae visited the country of Niger in Africa at the request of "The Observer" and wrote an article about the famine titled, [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1544099,00.html "This is not just another act of God - this is ingrained poverty".]

"Lipstick", a single by "Wills and the Willing" is due to be released on July 7th 2008. McRae provides the vocals for parts of the song which he wrote after hearing the original material, which had been written in response to the London bombings. [ [http://www.myspace.com/willsandthewilling Wills and the Willing myspace page] ]

McRae was once cast in an independent film as Gram Parson's ghost. Funding for the film fell through and all that remains is his screen test. [ [http://www.gibsoneurope.com/smartsite.dws?id=12594 interview with Gibson's guitars] ]

His song "São Paulo Rain" was featured in a 6th season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode is entitled "Entropy."

His song "Set The Story Straight" was featured in a 2nd season episode of Kyle XY.

References

External links

* [http://www.tommcrae.com/ The official Tom McRae website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/tommcrae Tom McRae on MySpace]
* [http://www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfilms/show.html?id=89 Information about Uno]
* [http://users.pandora.be/nessler "For the restless": site with discography, Tour history and more]
* [http://www.lakeofstars.co.uk Lake of Stars website]