A little luck, and a lot of heart and soul

Thursday, February 11, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad

Molly McGinn fingers the necklace dangling around her neck, a dog-tag-shaped emblem inscribed with the name Amelia Earhart. A gift from a friend, McGinn thinks it may be a good-luck charm, a harbinger for good things to come.

McGinn's new band, Amelia's Mechanics, is playing to sell-out crowds and hawking a debut CD, "North, South," to rave reviews. The band was voted one of the "Best of 2009" on WUNC's "State of Things" radio show.

McGinn settles her tall frame into an easy chair, crossing one boot over one knee. Her signature curly hair springs over her high cheekbones as she positions her cell phone to answer an expected call from Scott Avett, of the nationally acclaimed band The Avett Brothers. Avett's father, Jim, produced "North, South" and has urged his son to share his opinion on the CD.

Jim Avett and McGinn met a couple of years ago when she was singing and playing guitar in the band Thacker Dairy Road. McGinn released a solo CD in 2007, "Girl With a Slingshot," from which two songs are on "North, South."

"Jim told me I needed to add someone to harmonize with and to add some strings," McGinn says. "Molly Miller opened for me for a show at Triad Stage a couple of years ago, and I knew Kasey Horton from open mike night. The three of us had all just gotten our hearts broken, and we decided to start a band."

In February 2009, McGinn, Miller and Horton wrote and played songs inspired by Earhart, Ernest Hemingway, a suicide bomber and a female moonshine runner.

Horton, a violist and student at UNCG majoring in music, grins mischievously as she describes their music as "vintage country with a moonshine concerto."

Miller, an anthropology major at UNCG, plays electric guitar.

"We all come from very different backgrounds," she says. "I've always loved country, and Kasey is classically trained, and Molly is a free spirit. I guess you could call it free country classical?"

" 'North, South' was supposed to be a five-song EP," McGinn says. "In the studio, every time we'd play a song for Jim, he'd come out of the glass and say, 'That's great. Play another one.'

"Jim's hands are very much in the CD. He had us all sit around one microphone and sing and play. That's what lends this CD to a hand-made sound. It's three musicians sitting around looking at each other and connecting. It's true to our sound, and what you see is what you get."

McGinn's phone rings. She grabs it and says, "Hello."

"This is Scott Avett, and my dad made me call you," the caller says.

McGinn laughs, and they spend a few minutes extolling Jim Avett's virtues. Scott Avett tells McGinn that "there's a lot of good stuff on the CD, and the quality of musicianship is very much there."

"Oh, thank you," McGinn replies. "I've been listening to a little bit of what you're doing, and you're all right."

"Well, I appreciate that," Avett says, laughing.

McGinn's blue eyes sparkle as she hangs up. "He wants to hear more and see what comes out next," she says. "That means a lot to me because people who come out to the Avett Brothers' shows leave wanting to be a better person. That's what we want to accomplish with Amelia's Mechanics. We want to write songs that will lift people up, fix a broken heart or pick someone up when they're lying on the floor."

Lucky charm or not, lady luck is riding shotgun with Amelia's Mechanics. They recently hired manager/promoter Neal Davis, who has worked with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and with B.B. King. And they're planning a second CD release in July.

"I never thought I would play in an all-girl band," McGinn says. "But I love being a part of this band, and our goal is to keep doing it and learning. It's kind of like waking up and finding out it's Christmas every day. It's the thing I've been wishing for all my life, and now it's happening."