Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Sit with the songs

Ian McFeron, at Sun Valley Brewery on Sunday, invites listeners to his musical living room

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By KAREN LINDELL
Express Staff Writer

Seattle singer-songwriter Ian McFeron says he’ll have a set list for his show at the Sun Valley Brewery in Hailey on Sunday, Sept. 7, but usually ends up following “the vibe of the room.” Courtesy photo by Kaitlin Banfill

    Singer-songwriter Ian McFeron’s early musical awareness was about sound and story.
    For as long as he can remember, McFeron played the piano every day, making up instrumental songs. When he was 4, his mom babysat another boy who asked him, “How about I make up a story and you make up the sound effects on the piano?”
    “I’d use the piano keys to make things like thunder and rain and little ominous melodies when the witch was sneaking up from behind,” McFeron said. It was just a game, but it also was sort of my first experience seeing music and sound as narrative.”
    Seattle musician McFeron, 33, is now a storytelling musician who writes lyrics, too, mostly about real-life experiences. He returns to the Wood River Valley on Sunday, Sept. 7, for an acoustic gig at the Sun Valley Brewery in Hailey with his vocal, instrumental and romantic partner Alisa Milner.
    McFeron said he used to perform at the old Whiskey Jacques’ before it burned down in 2008, and since then has performed at the Sun Valley Brewery several times.
    Don’t look for the 1970 Gillig diesel school bus (converted to an RV with bunks and a kitchen) that McFeron used to travel in, however. After it accumulated 300,000 miles, he “scaled down” to an old Dodge van that “can park in a conventional parking space, which is pretty useful in cities like Boston and New York,” McFeron said.
    McFeron, discovered by a Seattle radio station in 2003, travels around the country and has released seven full-length albums, most recently “Time Will Take You” in 2013. He’s shared the stage with artists like Patty Griffin, Shawn Mullins, Brandi Carlile and Amos Lee.
    McFeron said he grew up listening to his dad’s records — The Band, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and The Beatles.
    His music, he said, “definitely grows out of the folk/Americana tradition that those ’60s and ’70s greats pioneered. I also loved all the acoustic-based pop-rock bands in the ’90s like Toad the Wet Sprocket, Tracy Chapman and The Gin Blossoms. Lately, I’ve been loving The Wood Brothers, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams.”
    As a songwriter, he said, “you’re first and foremost a fan of music. I’d like to think my music sounds like the sum of my influences steeped in my walk through life played with all the honesty and sincerity I can pour out of my heart.”
    McFeron said the first songs he wrote (in high school and college) were about romance and heartache. More recently, however, his music is “about the times, traveling, and reaching for spiritual meaning. I used to just write for myself. I hope now … that listeners can come into the song and sit down in it, like they would in a comfortable living room.”
    Although he’ll have a set list at the Sun Valley Brewery, McFeron said he usually ends up diverting from it, “throwing in songs that follow the vibe of the room.”
    Good music, he said, “is the stuff that is beautiful, naked and played from the heart.”

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Ian McFeron
The Seattle singer-songwriter will perform at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 at the Sun Valley Brewery in Hailey, 202 N. Main St. No cover charge. For more information, call 788-0805. McFeron’s website is www.ianmcferon.com.

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