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Armed Forces Entertainment gave us the opportunity to give thanks to our troops over the holiday this year. We are just back from our first Pacific tour. eyes wide open, and hearts overflowing. These men and women are real life heroes. Thank you to all of our troops for fighting for our freedom. for giving us the privilege of dreaming out loud.
BIOGRAPHY
Listening to Mindy McQ’s warm, silky vocals and well-crafted songs puts a listener in mind of Harlem, Detroit, Chicago or Philadelphia, harking back to the classic soul tracks of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. One would never dream that these songs and that voice, so sultry and knowing, are the product of a slender, young, red headed pixie from rural Ohio, but they are.
Born and raised in Berlin Center, Ohio, a town so small and isolated it still doesn't have cable TV, McQ says “the environment alone is enough to encourage creativity”, but it was also her parents who instilled the creative bug in her. “My parents are such vibrant, free spirited people. We were always encouraged to be our own person. Being weird was never a bad thing.”
McQ never considered making music until graduating from high school, but as soon as the thought entered her mind, she was determined to make it work. “I’ve tried to do and be many things in my life,” McQ says, “but singing and songwriting is the only thing I’ve done that feels completely natural.” So, in one lunch break, she quit her job and moved to Cleveland, “the nearest big city”, and started making music.
Things happened quickly for McQ in Cleveland, thanks to her determination, as well as her talent. Within a few months she had recorded her first CD, entitled “Sugarpill”, and booked a show opening for her then favorite female artist, Alana Davis. Soon after, she ran into local duo “2 Skinny Dorks” who asked her to go into the studio to record vocals with them. There, at Akron's Neon Cactus Studios, she met producers/musicians Mike Farona and Jon Denney who, impressed by her voice and CD, offered her a production deal. The three were inseparable for years, as they locked themselves up in the studio, writing and recording, and finally emerged with three CD’s worth of songs featuring instrumentalists like Frank Romano (Rob Thomas, P.Diddy, etc.), and Matt Cappy (The Roots, Jill Scott, etc.). Their product quickly gained McQ attention from local Jim Quinn, who introduced her to his then retired business partner, Tom Cossie (RCA Records). In June of 2005, Cossie came out of retirement, and he and Quinn signed a management deal with McQ. The next year sparked her a great deal of label attention, but Cossie was not confident in the offers, or the state that these labels were in, so no deal was ever signed.
McQ remembers, “Of course it was disappointing, but we all agreed that we really have something great here, so we wanted to immerse ourselves in a bigger market and see what we could do with it.” So, in 2006, McQ and her entire band “Love Pudding”, along with Denney and Farona, and their entire studio, relocated to Nashville, TN in hopes of making a way for themselves swimming with the big fish. Since the move, their musical adventures have taken them to Japan, Korea, Singapore and back. They’ve been picked by John Rich (Big and Rich) as one of Nashville’s best new talents, and featured on stages with icons such as Mary J. Blige, Robert Lockwood Jr., Suzanne Vega, Marc Broussard, etc., and of course, John Rich himself.
McQ is still playing out with her band, “Love Pudding”, and currently working on her new album, yet to be titled. “I’ve found new inspiration in some of the great old classics, like Louie Armstrong and Sarah Vaughn. In the past, I’ve been drawn to great rhythms. Now I’m finding myself more attracted to the melodies”, says McQ. “I’m just really excited to be in the creative process again.”
