NOTE: Utah Girl RIP- Tired of being asked what part of Utah they were from, the duo officially re-christened themselves as MacClain & Cole in March of 2012.
Produced by Jason Cole - Mixed by Gabriel Shepard - Mastered by Mike Wells Mastering
MacClain & Cole Are: Amy MacClain- Vocals and Guitar - Jason Cole- Guitar, Bass, Drums, Programming
Contact: macclainandcole@gmail.com
All Songs by MacClain/Cole ©2011 All Rights Reserved
EP REVIEW:
"You and me carry life's disappointments, like a weight on our backs, can we bring it back, bring it back to love?” So starts the countrified finger-picking title track leading off the new six-song EP, Back to Love from the venerable Oakland California acoustic folk rock duo now known as MacClain & Cole. This beautiful EP offers three songs of intimate sparse guitar and vocals balanced with three songs of more expansive arrangements with drums, bass, and percussion. All songs are awash in singer Amy MacClain’s soaring, layered vocal harmonies which pack a powerful, emotional punch at all the right moments. In addition to Back to Love, other standout cuts are the wry double-time bluegrass stomp, “Percents” which crunches the numbers on the current state of the world with lines such as, “1 in 10 teenagers attempting suicide, 2 in 10 little boys can’t find no place to hide.” Despite the serious subject matter, Percents is so very infectious that you will be singing along to the end of the world cautionary diatribe! Back to Love is a solid effort and every song is an emotional exploration into things going wrong in relationships as well as the world at large. Buy this EP and take this journey with MacClain & Cole as they bring it Back to Love.
BIO:
MacClain & Cole originally formed “by accident” as Utah Girl in 1999 in Oakland, California. Then roommates singer/songwriter Amy MacClain and drummer Jason Cole sat in their living room drinking coffee, their Saturday morning ritual. The two roomies were also bandmates in a No Doubt style funk rock band called Sugar Boogie however, Jason had always wanted to learn the guitar in order to satisfy his songwriting urges. Jason was strumming (bashing!) the only two chords he knew on Amy’s old acoustic guitar when out of nowhere she began to sing, channeling full stream of conscious lyrics and melodies. Their first song, “Noble” was born that morning and within weeks they had written a half a dozen more.
Amy and Jason soon added bass, drums, violin, and female backing vocals to their live show and quickly became a popular draw on the burgeoning San Francisco Bay Area acoustic scene (getting their name almost by default by playing The Hotel Utah club so often.)
“Utah Girl”, their self-titled first album, was released in 2001. The six song EP contained a broken down set of poignant yet heart wrenching songs of pain, isolation, and yearning with MacClain channeled deeply personal lyrics from the darkness of her childhood past.
After constant gigging and promotion, MacClain and Cole went their separate ways in 2003 only to reemerge in 2009 with the prolific duo writing their strongest material to date. New songs focusing on hope, growth, love, and the desire to get the world to slow down, take a deep breath, and get back to what was real- family, community, healing, and truth. This new uplifting direction was captured on this 2011 EP, the warmly received, “Back to Love”, released under the Utah Girl moniker.
MacClain & Cole's brand new full length album, "Step Into Now" will be available on CD Baby (and iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.) in both CD and digital download formant on July 3, 2012.
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