Cameron McGill & What Army live

Cameron McGill & What Army
Schubas, Chicago
Wednesday, December 7, 2005

A native of Champaign-Urbana, Cameron McGill began his musical career as frontman of pop-rock trio Morris Minors. The band released an EP in 2002 before splitting the following year. McGill went on to record his solo album, Stories Of The Knife And The Back in 2003, an effort that landed him an opening spot on tour with songstress Rachel Yamagata.

McGill plans to release his sophomore LP, Street Ballads & Murderesques, in January. It strays from the full band structure of *Stories* and instead takes a simplistic acoustic approach with only occasional accompaniment.

Last Wednesday night McGill previewed some of the songs from Street Ballads, but with different arrangements by enlisting local quintet What Army to provide an interesting take on the originally subtle compositions. The result was an intricate, detail-oriented performance complete with piano, cello, drums, electric/acoustic guitar, bass, tambourine, and harmonica. All these instruments blended exquisitely, most notably on the ballad “When It Could Hurry,” which had McGill’s distinct soft, soothing vocals commanding the ensemble.

McGill epitomized the classic indie singer-songwriter look with his ripped suit jacket, jeans, neck bandana, messy hair, and topped it off with a small scarf sticking out of his front pocket. He backed up the style with a powerful, emotive, and enthusiastic performance, which was somewhat reminiscent of Ben Folds, especially when McGill played the piano with high intensity, often not being able to sit still. One of the most expressive renditions was for “Long Way Back To California,” a catchy, upbeat tune that sounds like it should be the backdrop during an “O.C.” scene.

The group didn’t stick with one genre during the 60-minute set, instead fused elements of spacy atmospherics, folk rock, alt-country, blues, jazz, and as McGill described it, “soft pretty ones.”

The final song of the night was an intimate solo execution of “Mama I’m A Dishonest Man.” McGill introduced it by sharing, “I just wrote this song last night. So I need a volunteer to hold the lyrics for me.” The honest poetic lyricism and the attentive hush of the audience made it the highlight of the night, with McGill truly connecting to everyone in the room.

— Jill Haverkamp

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly