Andy McClelland: A singer/songwriter you’ll want to share

 

In 1969, by a strange fluke, I won a scholarship to study at a small private Canadian institution located in Switzerland, Neuchâtel Junior College, receiving financial assistance for which only students from London, Ontario were eligible. I never should have been granted this award. It should have gone to Bruce Green, a classmate who had much better grades and was infinitely more insightful than I. Bruce was also a confirmed cynic, who had obviously made little effort to win over the blue ribbon panel of local worthies on the scholarship selection committee. So it was that I found myself, in September 1969, in a small Swiss town at a small Canadian school, among mainly wealthy and mainly brilliant youth, far from home, just as the 1960s were reaching their psychedelic apogee. In this cerebral and hormonal hotbed, no longer was being good at school considered an irreparable shortcoming that required obfuscation by any self-respecting guy; no longer did being a brain have to be dissimulated under the guise of feigned bovine stupidity. At Neuchâtel, I threw off the stigma of nerdity, of being a Clark Kent without a phone booth, and became a self-professed hippie intellectual enveloped in a dense marijuana and tobacco haze.

 

https://www.njc.ch/

 

The trip from Canada to Switzerland was far from uneventful for the 100 or so students who made up the 1969 Neuchâtel contingent.  We spent a week or so of travel time together, including several days crossing the Atlantic on the Empress of Canada, an illustrious ocean liner.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Canada_(1960)

 

My new schoolmates turned out to be a brilliant, witty, and creative lot, and musical skills were front and centre, as befitted that golden age of folk, pop, and rock.

 

Impromptu jam sessions and organized talent shows abounded on board the Empress, whenever passengers weren’t singing another less merry tune: the seasickness blues.

 

During the trip, one extremely gifted musician pulled off a miraculous musical feat, offering a solo performance of Arlo Guthrie’s classic anti-war song/ diatribe, a shaggy dog story if there ever was one, lasting nearly 19 minutes and encompassing a vast array of bizarre detours and non-sequiturs that made its memorization simply unfathomable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant

 

Shaggy dog story – Wikipedia

 

This budding master performer was Andy McClelland, today a professional singer/ songwriter and producer, still going strong, 55 years later.

https://soundcloud.com/andy-mcclelland

 

I have had the incredible privilege of collaborating with Andy on several tunes based on various poems that I’ve written. Sows ears that he’s transformed into silk purses for all to share. The tunes are linked below:

 

Stream Instagram -A Lament by Andy McClelland | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

 

 

Instagram…a musical lament – Robert McBryde (robertmcbrydeauthor.com)

 

Stream Weetabix by Andy McClelland | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

 

Weetabix – Robert McBryde (robertmcbrydeauthor.com)

 

https://soundcloud.com/andy-mcclelland/im-a-grandpa-for-rent

 

I’m a grandpa for rent – Robert McBryde (robertmcbrydeauthor.com)

 

https://soundcloud.com/andy-mcclelland/anne-is-the-true-artist-in-our-home

Anne Is The True Artist In Our Home: Song Version – Robert McBryde (robertmcbrydeauthor.com)

 

The Shiny Grey Suit Blues by Andy McClelland (soundcloud.com)

Boy in a shiny gray suit – Robert McBryde (robertmcbrydeauthor.com)

 

Thanks so much. Andy! You’ve illuminated my end-of-life  pathway.

 

Your friend,

Robert

 

https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/