Considering the fact(s) that Lindsay Mac was born to "bohemian, party-hungry parents" who fed her pork tenderloin and microbrew for breakfast; that she began her formal training in the church choir, then went on to study medicine at Dartmouth; and that she attended London College of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory and Berklee College of Music in between stints as a professional ski patroller and bike messenger, it's easy to see why the Iowa-born cellist was not necessarily inclined to look at her instrument in the conventional way.
Rather, the now Boston-based singer-songwriter straps her cello to her body much like a guitar and has established herself as the toast of the folk circuit of late, garnering recent kudos on a host of Beantown/NYC radio stations, in the Boston Globe and even in Strings magazine.
This Thursday, Feb. 18, she'll bring her unique almagam of "classical-Beethoven-meets-Portishead" to East Hamp's PACE for an 8 p.m. engagement. For tix or more info, kindly point your browser to lindsaymac.com.
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Also, as promised, here is the last installment of the Aaron Lewis interview, wherein our hero sheds some light on his highly anticipated solo project, the American dream and some unhealthy practices that are endangering it.
Nightcrawler: Is 2010 when the fabled Aaron Lewis solo projects finally hit the shelves?
Aaron Lewis: It is, although, I must say, everything has really morphed along the way. What you will see now is an amalgamation of the last batch of small room (The Cabaret) Mohegan Sun live performances and probably three or four new songs for the CD plus a Sundance-type music/documentary DVD.
Nightcrawler: What kind of style and sound should we expect for your solo tunes?
Lewis: Well, I think it's pretty obvious, my style. You listen to "Outside," "It's Been A While"—I bring acoustically written rock songs to the table. From there [with Staind], the guys add their embellishments to it and bring it somewhere else.
Nightcrawler: Whereas with the solo stuff, it will remain closer to its initial incarnation?
Lewis: Actually, not necessarily (laughs). Sometimes it will just go in different directions. For example, the first single, "Country Boy," has a country flair, with pedal steel guitars.
Nightcrawler: What's going on with that lyrically?
Lewis: Really, it's autobiographical… just about me, growing up in America, and my feelings along the way.
Nightcrawler: I've noticed you've become increasingly outspoken on what you perceive to be attacks on American values and basic ideology as it pertains to governing.
Lewis: I have. Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in the system, but the government really seems to be going astray. I'm quite certain the forefathers never envisioned government as a multi-billion-dollar corporation. And I have had the luxury of seeing how many systems run throughout the world. So, in the case of health care, for example, trust me—we don't want what they have. In fact, we have the best health care system in the world, and 85 percent of the people are happy with it. But we are trying to dismantle it for 15 percent, and if we do… well, then, I guess people will get to experience rushing into an emergency room with their child and instead of getting treated instantly, have them assessed to see if their child is more or less sick than the others in the room.
Nightcrawler: Certainly no shortage of fodder for you lyrically, either. I always wanted to ask about your process—do you have notebooks of lyrics ready to go, or tailor to each song?
Lewis: I always have to have the music first. I need to know the terrain, you know? But from there, I mean, the night I did "Outside" on the Family Values tour, I had been changing the lyrics over and over and couldn't have told you what I would sing until I got onstage. For the song "Epiphany," we were literally tracking something else when it all hit me like a freight train. We dumped out of the other song, and just banged "Epiphany" out almost on the spot… it was all in my head.
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