“McLane & Co. is the band I started back in 2016, grabbing a couple of members – including myself – who were previous members of The Tumbleweed Jumpers. Just trying to start my own thing from there. I sing and play guitar. I write songs for the band, and we perform anywhere and everywhere we can, just trying to get our music out there. A lot of people think our music is only Irish-driven music, but it’s not. I mean, there are definitely hints and notes of it in there, but that’s not all that we do.
I love it when, after we’re done with a show, parents with kids will come up and just want to say hi or something. They say they like our music and whatnot. I end up giving the kids a CD, a pin, or a sticker. Their faces glow, and they get really excited about music. And I hope that kind of pushes them toward playing an instrument or performing when they get older. Kind of like what I’m trying to do.
I live here in Goshen. It’s really easy for me to get my writing groove. A couple of the band members live here in Goshen, but not all of them. We do call ourselves a Goshen band. Goshen itself is vibrant – it’s got this awesome clique for music, for art. It’s got everything you want in a small town here in America. I can go down to Goshen Brewing Company and know the owner’s name, and they know me by name and just book a gig for a couple of months out. They always pack the house. Everyone goes there. It’s a great scene. You’ve got Ignition Music, which brings in all these acts from all over the place. We’ve gotten to open for a great band from Colorado called Thunder and Rain. Fantastic people, you get to meet. You get to network with other musicians from out of state through a place like Ignition. Everywhere you look here, you know people by name. People will be walking down the street. They own such-and-such place, and they’re like, ‘Hey, why don’t you come by and play some music?’ ‘Well, great, we’ll totally do that.’
Our last show was back in March. I believe it was the night before they shut everything down. We were playing at Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend, and it was kind of like a ghost town. It was supposed to be St. Patrick’s Day weekend when we were expecting big shows. That’s our busiest time of the year. Right after that show, we were supposed to play two or three more that same weekend. All of them got canceled. Those are big-paying shows for us, so that really hurt. We were in the middle of recording with Nathan Butler down below Ignition Garage, below The Electric Brew. We got one session in with him, but then, without the income from playing shows, our second album’s in limbo right now because we have to wait. We do have a show planned out for September, but from March ’til September, we had all these other shows we were going to play – out of state, local – that just got canceled. It’s a shame. We waited, and after a while, we started practicing again. We’re writing new material, new stuff, and just trying to stay busy and positive that we’ll be able to make maybe two or three albums next year since we’re not able to do one this year. We’re just trying to stay focused on the goal and trying to stay positive.”
