3/14/5

I've known Kevin McCreery since around 1985, during my teen years growing up in Michigan. I was in a church youth group primarily because it was run by my older sister, and at the time he was a recently converted Christian that was a speaker at one of our little retreats. Over the next couple years, I hung out with him and his new wife and a couple of their friends till shortly after the birth of their daughter and I went off to college.

Kevin was about five years older than me and had been playing guitar since he was around 8-years-old, primarily in a hard rock band called MACH. His recent cleaning up and conversion had found him starting anew with a solo project that was briefly called Parousia before officially becoming Under Grace (I still have a rough demo tape with the former moniker). In the process of putting together his first demo/album, I showed him some lyrics I'd written, which he modified to make fit one of his songs. It's was my first serious foray into the music business. I even typed up the lyric sheet and credits for the tape insert, and it was sold out of one record store in Alma, Michigan. Local word-of-mouth made it the store's second biggest seller throughout the summer of 1987, topped only by Whitesnake, who were getting considerably more radio air-time :)

He had also put together a live band, with whom I shot a music video and interview for episode five of my short-lived (nine total episodes, the last two left unfinished and unaired) public access television show (that's a whole other story). They played a handful of shows before immaturity and tensions broke them apart. He released a second tape that had a glut of material on it (standard length by modern CD expectations) that included another song that was primarily my lyrics which he'd added a third verse and one line to, and yet another that we'd actually sat down and collaborated on while I was just playing around with a cheesy Casio keyboard.

A year later, he released a third tape with better production values (by which I mean he used a higher quality drum machine), the final three tracks of which were actually MACH, as he had rejoined their ranks. This was followed up by a MACH tape that had a couple Under Grace songs on it, making it kind of odd, going from one song about a party-boy who doesn't want to get tied down to one girl, into a song encouraging you to take a stand for Jesus.

MACH went into a professional studio in Owosso, Michigan, and came out with a CD that truly showed their stuff. They could have become serious contenders in the local scene and beyond, but bassist Eric Link was informed by his doctor that if he didn't stop playing, he'd be totally deaf soon. Kevin and drummer Fran McMillan hooked up with new bassist Bruce LaFrance to form lovejones, musically still in the same vein, but Kevin had now struck a King's X-like balance lyrically between spiritual musings and relatability to a larger audience.

The CD that came of this band is, to this day, still one of my favorite albums (and I listen to a LOT of fucking music!) The name, however, went to a signed and touring alt-rock act, so they became Feeding The Machine and soldiered on throughout the nineties in and around Michigan's various local circuits, building quite a following, as best as I could ascertain from the distance in California, where I'd been living since leaving college behind and pursuing a career as a small-time recording engineer.

At the dawn of the new millenium, Kevin started commuting to Nashville for session work, while dipping into the local rock scene. He met up with vocalist David Frazier out of Louisville, and the two formed Outspoken. This finally proved to be Kevin's fast-track to a record deal and studio time with Rick Parasher in Seattle. However, the label took a year to actually release the album, which was followed by a tour that found the band falling apart as rapdily as they had come together.

But after thirty years of honing his chops, Kevin's guitar skills had finally been brought to a national audience. He got a gig touring with Tantric for a year while still keeping a strong foot in the Louisville scene and maintaining a musical bond with Outspoken bassist Frank Green. The project that has grown out of this is still in it's embyronic stage, but I'm all over it. It's gonna be Ugly!

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