Interview and video: Oklahoma red dirt music pioneer Mike McClure 'Looking Up' on new album

A version of this story appears in Friday's Weekend Life section of The Oklahoman.

'Looking Up'

Red dirt music star Mike McClure releasing cathartic new album

After spending the past few years dealing with death, divorce and addiction, Mike McClure is "Looking Up."

"A lot of things were changing in life and then (his producer) Joe Hardy passed away. Also, not too long ago, Tom Skinner died, and he was my mentor and one of my best buds and we were in a band together for 10 years. Also lost Steve Ripley, another great Oklahoma music man that was very cool to me. Just all the sudden I found myself lost without my older teachers, and there's a sense of being on your own. I think at first I panicked a little," he said.

"My girlfriend and I, she's an artist in her own right ... and not only being the new love in my life, but she sat down and really helped me get my thoughts organized, which they were just kind of all over the map, really. Getting those down led to a lot of healing. But coming out of a bad relationship into a good one and losing friends and then, man, getting slammed with COVID and everything that's going on in the world with social injustice, it's just been pretty heavy."

Out Friday, the red dirt music pioneer's first album in five years boasts a vibe that's more hopeful than heavy. Created and produced with his partner, Chrislyn Lawrence, in his Boohatch Studio in Ada, McClure said he didn't want "Looking Up" to sound like it was "brought to you by COVID-19 and sadness."

"It could have just went off of the rails, but instead, when I came to this crossroads - and it was - I decided to stop drinking. I had been using that has a crutch for somehow covering over the feelings that I had that I needed to work on. And my job allowed me to do that and get away with that for a lot of years and not really have to grow emotionally in some ways. ... I just couldn't do it while I was still drinking. So, I decided to put that down, that's been about a year ago. And this album is the reflection of that work," McClure said.

"If I had to pick words to describe it, which is always kind of hard, I would say it's somber and triumphant. I just think that there's a certain somberness - not a depressed somberness but just some grounding. I needed to grow up and I needed to face situations like being in a bad relationship and instead of drinking about it, actually doing something about it."

Pandemic break

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, McClure is marking the release of "Looking Up" with a a multi-camera, pay-per-view virtual release show at Tulsa's Mercury Lounge. Filmed live, the show will be aired uncut at 8 p.m. Saturday and allow his fans to hear him perform songs from his 10th album in a safe way.

"My songwriting process is always trying to dig inside and lift myself up. I have a few that just tear myself down and wallow in it. But for the most part, I'm trying to inflect some hope into my own situation - and hopefully, that translates out into a wider audience where people can feel a little bit of hope, too," he said.

McClure got his start playing at The Farm in Stillwater alongside late red dirt music legends Skinner, Ripley, Bob Childers and Jimmy LaFave. He co-founded The Great Divide, the red dirt outfit that took the homegrown Oklahoma sound national in the early 2000s and reunited several years back to play the occasional short tour.

Although he eventually branched out to producing albums for many other artists, McClure has spent two decades primarily as a touring musician and solo recording artist, having released nine previous albums.

But when the COVID-19 outbreak reached Oklahoma in March, his life suddenly stopped.

"I got the chance to come off the road for the first time in I don't know how many years. It seems like it would be before I got my drivers license, and I'm almost 50 now. So, it was a chance to grow a garden and to be home and get up in the same spot every day and not be so distracted: The distraction of driving somewhere, checking into a hotel, playing the show, talking to people, loading the gear, going to the next town. I've just been in a series of doing that since I was 21," he said in a phone interview this week.

"When COVID and lockdown came along, I was apprehensive at first as far as to 'how am I gonna make a living? I can't go play in a club.' So, we had to learn to do Facebook Live shows, did those for a while and that kept us afloat. Then, we got into the Kickstarter thing for this record, and that really helped pay for that and to keep our lights turned on. I had to sit down and do a record because, one, it was time ... and then here I am quarantined at a studio. So, really there was no excuse not to just sit down and do it."

Turned upside-down

The singer-songwriter said he has spent the six months of the penning songs, raising chickens, spending time with his two daughters, ages 21 and 17. For his first collection since 2015's Cody Canada collaborative release "Chip & Ray: Together Again for the First Time," McClure also had to figure out how to make an album without his longtime producer Hardy, who died in 2019.

Since he had enough room in his Ada home for social distancing, McClure invited his longtime bandmate Eric Hansen to come in and play drums on the new album. He then sent the files to Ruben Salazar in Denton, Texas, to put the bass on, to Jon Knudson in San Antonio to add the keyboards and to Tim Lorsch in Nashville, Tennessee, to provide the fiddle and cello.

"So it was cool to kind of ping-pong it around and everybody just lined up with some perfect parts. I felt like we really captured some cool things. ... Everything just came together," McClure said.

"It was a really cathartic process of working through these songs and writing these songs. A couple of old songs I pulled out that had some new meaning because of the situation of the world. It was really that whole process being put down."

Inspired by his new love, McClure also tried a new way of looking at life when he felt stuck: upside down.

Shortly after he and Lawrence started dating, she took him to his first yoga class.

"I was just going because it was something new and I wanted to hang out with her. ... And I learned to stand on my head, and any time I'm kind of getting stuck on something or I need a little break, I'll flip up on my head. It floods your brain with oxygenated blood - and shifts stuff around. Then, she taught me some basic moves, and now I just feel better. ... I do it at different times, but every day, I'll get on that mat. For 30 minutes, I'm just stretching and breathing and not really thinking about stuff. Just being," he said.

"I took this time to really get centered and grounded. I'm super ready to go hit the road when it's safe, for sure, but I'm very thankful for this time. ... And the people that listen to my music and support me really helped me do that, from kicking in on the Facebook Live or kicking in on my Kickstarter. I've still been able to keep doing what I'm doing, and I'm super thankful."

VIRTUAL CONCERT

Mike McClure "Looking Up" pay-per-view show

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Cost: $10 virtual ticket includes a viewable link for five days following initial airing.

Tickets and information: www.prekindle.com.

-BAM