Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Sumner McKane creates an ambient Americana anthem

Musik

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It's been several years now that guitarist Sumner McKane has been releasing albums of evocative soundscapes dipped in Americana as cinematic as a John Ford western and as nuanced as Andrew Wyeth painting. This isn't pastoral nostalgia. His landscapes are tinged in ambient atmospheres and pulled by an undertow of psychedelia that makes it some of the most unassumingly mind-bending music of the decade.

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0:03:35
SM: with my stuff I don?t think of it as, as country sound, I think of more of a western sound. You know, there?s not a big difference but just the big reverby baritone kind of guitar sound, the spaghetti western stuff, so I think that for me is, I always try and fit that in somewhere just because I love that sound.

Musik Riding in Cars in the woods

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On his latest album, What A Great Place to Be, Sumner plays everything, drums, bass, computer, but his main instrument is guitar. He plays in a country band, but you can hear Echoes of San Francisco psychedelic guitar and shades of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour in his playing.

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SM: Just take the reverb and put in on 10.
J: This is a reverb friendly zone.
0:10:53
SM: Yeah, a little delay, a little reverb and, and 17 guitar tracks will get you there. Um, but no, a little reverb and some delay and a tremolo pedal always gets that, that sound for, that lonesome kind of big space sound.

Musik FIRST TRACK

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Most of Sumner McKane's What a Great Place to Be was birthed at the same time he brought his two daughters into the world. No doubt their presence impacted the serene nature of the album,
but Sumner's music has always had a nostalgic quality. His covers are usually home snapshots and landscapes from Maine, and his titles harken back to his youth with songs like After the Fireworks we walked to the Rope Swing. His titles are long and unwieldy, but the music is anything but.

musik

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Sumner McKane's new album is What A Great Place to Be and it makes you feel exactly that wherever you're listening. It's like the gentlest acid dream in a sun-drenched meadow. I'm John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for new music.