Don McNatt
Bio
Don McNatt is the son of Grand Ole' Opry Fiddler Speedy McNatt, who played with Eddy Arnold, and Pee Wee King, among others. Don's own career as a performer, and songwriter includes a history of traveling bands, among them, The Spiral Starecase, The Keith Sykes Band, Quo Jr., and Surrender.
Don also had a period time with his own "SMPLZAT BAND" ( pronounced simple as Zat ) , and released one of his albums with the title Don McNatt
& the SMPLZAT BAND.
Don studied acting both as a college theatre major, and with Lawrence Menkin in San Rafael. Along the road with his music, he has worked in the professional theatre, as well as working in commercials, episodic television, and films, as an actor. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the American Federation of Musicians.
Although Don grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, He is most recently from Hollywood, California, where he spent a number of years .He also based in San Francisco, for a while, after a long stretch of living in hotels on the road. While in Los Angeles, Don was nominated by the California Country Music Association for the honors of Male Vocalist of the Year, and Male Entertainer of the Year, for Los Angeles, four years in a row. He won the Male Vocalist award in 1991 & 1993.
Don has played in cities and towns covering the USA and both coasts of Canada. Lately, he has been well received in London, and Berlin, overseas. He has played the smallest venues, like the " Holy City Zoo" in SanFransisco, where he opened for comedians. He's also played for stadium audiences, and was on stage at the Atlanta Pop Festival, where the "inside the gate" audience numbered 250 thousand.
Don played with bands most of his life, He is a multi instrumentalist, and still loves to play with great players, but mostly plays as a single now, concentrating on the writing of the songs. He is now proud to live in Songwriter Heaven, Nashville, Tennessee. He hosts a local cable show called "Writers in the Round, with Don McNatt & Friends", for Nashville CATV. It plays 4 times weekly in Nashville, and features great local writers, both from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and from local songwriter nights around Nashville. As part of the program, it will most often also have a new song from Don. He started this program while living in Hollywood, in 1991, and now produces and hosts it from Nashville.
He can be found nightly listening to , and playing with Nashville's finest songwriters, at the Hall of Fame Lounge, The French Quarter Cafe, Douglas Corner, The Boardwalk, the Bluebird Cafe, and the Broken Spoke, among others. The songwriting community in Nashville has shown him great support, and once a month 50-60 writers gather in his home to play for each other in an event called 2nd Wednesday.
Most of Don's recorded material, is on his own albums, but Ronn Crowder, Ellie Rome, and others have recorded Don's songs. His song "Almost Holiday" , from the SMPLZAT BAND LP, was featured in the film "Four Day Shoot", and he sang the title cut for the movie "Journeys".
Don's song "Act of Congress", also from the SMPZAT BAND LP, was used by Ross Perot in the stadiums for his political campaign rallies, as a Presidential candidate.
He has been writing songs, and performing since childhood. It has never lost it's fascination. Growing up in Memphis, the players that were in the early bands with Don are now blues, R& B, and Rock legends. At least one of them, Blues guitar giant Brad Webb, is on a couple of cuts of the Dog in My Dreams LP, that were cut in Memphis with the great players from "Blind Mississipi Morris's" Band, the Pocket Rockets. This album has the mix of fairly country songs, sung and played with Memphis Soul. The 8 songs cut in Nashville used some of Nashville's finest studio players, who really understood the concept, as well, so if that idea appeals to you, you'll love this CD.
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