Hey, cousins! I’m so excited to announce my new album, Late Bloomer! It’s a complete studio album of 20 songs recorded with some amazing Nashville session players at my favorite recording studio with engineer Marv Treutel. If you’ve been on one of our Nashville Field Trips (and joined us in the studio), your vocals will likely show up on these songs! Watch this 5-minute video to learn more about it and to see my custom drawings for the album artwork, which took hundreds of hours to complete.
SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THE VARIOUS WAYS YOU CAN PRE-ORDER AND SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION OF WHAT I FEEL IS MY BEST ALBUM YET.
$150 – Aluminum Package: You get the double album vinyl package, album download, signed and numbered limited edition print, album cover and poster printed on special metallic paper, your name as executive producer in the liner notes, and you’ll be in the first shipment – plus you’ll get weekly e-mail updates on the progress of the music with sound clips and studio photos. This is a pre-order and you will be notified when the album is shipped. Thank you for supporting my music! – Antsy McClain.
$Your Price – Above & Beyond Package: Many friends of my music have gone “above and beyond” the call and have donated generously. Those who are inclined to support the album at a price higher than the other packages will be given all the premiums mentioned in the Aluminum Package PLUS an ORIGINAL drawing ripped out of the pages of one of my own sketchbooks. It will be framed, signed and personalized to you, in appreciation of your generous support.
$100 – Fambly Package: You get the double album vinyl package, album download, signed and numbered limited edition print, album cover and poster printed on white, your name as executive producer in the liner notes, and you’ll be in the first shipment, and you’ll have my undying gratitude. This is a pre-order and you will be notified when the album is shipped. Thank you for supporting my music! – Antsy McClain.
$50 – Vinyl & Download Only: You get the double album vinyl package, album download and my undying gratitude. This is a pre-order and you will be notified when the album is shipped. Thank you for supporting my music! – Antsy McClain.
Some may not know that long before he became a singer/songwriter, Antsy McClain was a busy illustrator, working for such clients as The Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, Simon & Schuster, Psychology Today and many more. As music beckoned, Antsy’s graphic art career took a back seat, but never completely went away. During the lockdown of 2020’s pandemic, it was time to get back to work.
“I wanted to recreate the kind of multi-sensory experiences I had as a boy with so many of those lush, illustrative album covers of the 1970s,” explains Antsy, “I would let my eyes soak up the images while listening to the music, which often had links to the visual element.” The artwork was done in ink, charcoal powder and pencil, using soft brushes and a flannel cloth to create the gradated, ‘airbrush’ effect.
“I’ve never been able to get an airbrush to work for me,” says Antsy, “And I really like using dry media like pastel and charcoal, so I developed this technique years ago as a way to get to a place of softness and depth.” All of the images on the cover (and in subsequent artwork for the inside album cover which is being completed as we speak) have connections to the 20 songs on Late Bloomer, making it a concept album of sorts.
The original artwork is in the private collection of Lisa Forsyth.
Written, rewritten and recorded while in social isolation. Don’t expect normal. This is music made during our NEW normal. For 25 years, Antsy McClain has written some of the most humorous, insightful and endearing songs in Americana music. This collection of tunes is what happens to a wildly creative mind when quarantined and left alone to his own devices: pen, paper, guitar, harmonica, a couple of microphones and a 16-track soundboard. CLICK HERE or on the image above to get your DOWNLOAD!
$35 per session or $70 for full hour (which everyone seems to want to do. 30 minutes barely gets things rolling.) Monday thru Thursday between 5 – 8 PM Central. We’ve been videoing through Facebook’s Instant Messenger, and that seems to work fine, but we can also use Zoom or FaceTime, whatever works for you. The above link will go to our e-mail address. Just say you’d like a writing session, and let us know what day and time you’d prefer, and we will assist you with scheduling. Thanks for being there, cousins! – Antsy
