About
Although he was born in the industrial heart of New Jersey, Red McAdam’s mother Maggie made damn sure to rear him on country and folk music. She served up a steady diet of celebrated songwriters and singers on their kitchen radio day after day, from classics like Patsy Cline and Ernest Tubb to burgeoning legends like Lucinda Williams and Brad Paisley. Red’s father Bartholomew, a lifelong bass player, took it from there, teaching him banjo, mandolin, bass, and guitar.
A self-proclaimed ‘Western fraud,’ Red makes no effort to fit the country mold, but rather draws from the unique and largely unsung landscape of his world. Stranger-than-fiction episodes from his time on the road, preposterous characters with bizarre motives, and plain old bullshit mingle with vulnerable expressions of a tumultuous life and a threadbare heart. A first responder, passionate outdoorsman, recovering alcoholic, and heartbroken songwriter—Red earned whatever authenticity the country audience craves through his life, not place of birth.
McAdam’s playful outsider country music presents an inventive vision of what the genre can be. His rich, risky blend of traditional honky-tonk and Western swing draws on indie rock, R&B, and beyond, reflecting a lifelong love of all music and disdain for genres and rules of any kind. A consummate road dog, he brings his frenetic, dynamic, and occasionally delirious performances to dives, dancehalls, clubs, and theaters across the country. Listeners will recognize the Lone Star eccentricities of Terry Allen and Guy Clark, forlorn folk sensibilities of Elizabeth Cotton and Karen Dalton, and the driving genre-bending of The Band and Bob Dylan.
Over the past several years, he spent time working in National Parks and schools, bars and the backwoods, and most recently between emergency departments and ambulances across the country. After a spell hidden away in his high desert Arizona home, Red hit the road full tilt. In two barnstorming years, he and his band played 37 states over 13 tours, logging 90,000 miles and averaging over 200 shows a year. Red now lives outside of Austin in his 1976 Dodge Jamboree as the newest resident of the storied hill country and absolute greenest in a hallowed lineage of Texas songwriters.