Andy McKee (born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979) is an American acoustic guitarist currently signed to CANdYRAT Records. His rarely-seen style of playing and compositional talent has earned him a large fanbase; in late 2007, a live performance of his flagship song, "Drifting" became a Featured Video on YouTube, achieving over 10,000,000 views and earning a steady place as one of the highest rated music clips on the site. The video was also featured on the front page of MySpace in July of 2007. Many of McKee's other songs have experienced similar success on YouTube, such as "Rylynn" and "Africa" (the latter a Toto cover). McKee is currently on a world tour promoting his music, including his latest album, Gates of Gnomeria, which was released on September 10, 2007.
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Life and career
McKee played his first guitar, an Aria nylon string bought by his father, at age 13. Initially underwhelmed by his guitar lessons, McKee's electric guitar-playing cousin inspired him to continue learning, taking him out for his 16th birthday to see a guitarist named Preston Reed perform live at a clinic. McKee bought an instructional videotape from Reed and began to learn more complex guitar techniques from it, also earning his GED that year in order to drop out of high school. For the next five years, he continued to practice and improve while taking inspiration from guitarists such as Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Billy McLaughlin, Pat Kirtley, and Tommy Emmanuel.
Nocturne (2001)
In 2001, McKee released his first album, Nocturne. That same year, he placed third at the National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition in Winfield, Kansas, the youngest competitor to ever place so highly.[1] In 2003, McKee toured in Taiwan with Jacques Stotzem, Isato Nakagawa, and Masaaki Kishibe, and earned first place in Kansas' Miscellaneous Acoustic Instrument contest with a Ron Spillers harpguitar he purchased from Stephen Bennett in 2002. [2] The instrument can be seen in a number of his songs, such as "Into The Ocean" and "Gates to Gnomeria".
Dreamcatcher (2004)
McKee released his second album, Dreamcatcher, in 2004. The album includes his acclaimed cover of "Africa" by Toto, as well as "The Friend I Never Met", a song written in tribute to the late Michael Hedges. McKee used the title track to win the opportunity to perform with bassist Michael Manring, whom he has toured with multiple times since. Additionally, he placed first in the Kansas Fingerstyle Guitar Competition and second in the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Competiton that year. The album was later re-released by McKee's label to take advantage of the popularity he garnered on YouTube.
Art of Motion (2005)
McKee's third CD, Art of Motion, was released on CANdYRAT Records in November of 2005 and earned considerable praise from established acoustic guitarists such as Don Ross, whom McKee is currently on the same label with and has noted as one of his favorite artists. Most of the songs that McKee is known for on YouTube appear on the album, which has a handful of tracks carried over from Dreamcatcher as well.
Gates of Gnomeria (2007)
After experiencing a popularity boom thanks to his performances on YouTube and touring extensively throughout much of 2007, McKee returned to the studio to record his fourth full length CD, Gates of Gnomeria. The album contains six new songs, one of which had already been seen on YouTube ("Gates of Gnomeria"), as well as two cover songs. McKee is currently still on tour throughout the world, performing with other CANdyRAT artists and promoting the new album. He recently released a dual DVD with labelmate Antoine Dufour, each artist contributing eight songs to the disc; two of McKee's are from Gates of Gnomeria. He also has a collaborative album with Don Ross in the works, entitled The Thing That Came From Somewhere. The CD will feature tracks from both McKee and Ross' song libraries reworked for dual guitars, as well as a handful of solo cuts, and is set to be released in January of 2008.
YouTube Fame and Beyond
Self-described as "just this guy from Topeka, Kansas who kind of blew up on the Internet about a week before Christmas," McKee became an online sensation after videos of his performances were posted to YouTube by his record label. The video for "Drifting" was massively upvoted by users at Digg, spreading McKee's fame even further.[3] Since then he has appeared by invitation on Woodsongs as well as Last Call with Carson Daly, and his online store completely sold out of his various guitar tablature books; due to massive demand, sheet music for nearly all of his songs is now available to purchase and download from CANdYRAT's webstore. He has also contributed to Josh Groban's 2007 Christmas album, Noël, playing guitar on the song "Little Drummer Boy" - the album went on to become the best-selling CD of 2007, hitting #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200.
Response to Filesharing
McKee has, in the past, personally commented on BitTorrent websites hosting his music, chastising downloaders for their actions. Posting to The Pirate Bay under the name "AlteredTuning" (which is the same handle he uses on his own website's message boards), McKee sarcastically echoed other commenters' thanks to the original uploader of his album:
Yeah thanks a lot for uploading! It's not like I need to make a living with my music or anything.
8,676 thieves.
If you really appreciate what I am doing, buy my CD legitimately so I can continue to compose music rather than work at K-Mart. I'm not Metallica. I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars, much less millions.
Andy McKee [1]
Influences
McKee's influences include: Michael Hedges,Don Ross, Preston Reed, Billy McLaughlin, Björk, Eric Johnson, Steve Lukather, Imogen Heap, Metallica, Joe Satriani, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Steve Erquiaga, Vince Di Cola, Toto, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Primus, Neil Young, Phil Keaggy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pat Metheny and Dream Theater[4][5]. McKee began listening to metal, such as Dream Theater, at the age of 13. He described on Woodsongs how he was a "metal freak" during childhood, even performing a Metallica song in his high school talent show. It wasn't until he saw Preston Reed that his influences began to shift towards acoustic songwriters such as Don Ross and Michael Hedges. Both walks of music continue to influence him, though he has stuck with acoustic music in his professional life. In response to certain comments regarding the source of his creative talent, McKee has proudly admitted to have never taken any recreational drugs in his life -- a fact lauded by many of his fans, including fellow guitarist Don Ross. Commenting on McKee's MySpace, Ross wrote:
"I too have never touched weed, pills, blow or needles. I'm always insulted when people find that hard to believe. 'How can you write such insane music straight?!?' Frick! Some of us are just creative using only the chemicals already present in our bodies. That goes for almost any musician I've had a close association with, contrary to the stereotypes. Hell, Zappa was sober all the time!
Bravo, Andy. I appreciate the fact that when you and I tour together, there's no junk going around, no smokes, no nothing. Keeping it clean. And we always have a fabulous time."
Discography
| Album Title | Year |
|---|---|
| Nocturne | 2001 |
| Dreamcatcher | 2004 |
| Art of Motion | 2005 |
| Gates of Gnomeria | 2007 |
Split DVD w/ Antoine Dufour (2007)
![[1]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Andy_Mckee_comments_on_ThePirateBay.png){kind=link}