Tommy McLain

Soulful Louisiana singer Tommy McLain has been a legend in his home state since his sweetly mournful cover of Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams” became a major hit in 1966, and he’s won a cult following in America and the United Kingdom for his bittersweet swamp pop gems. Blending vintage R&B, country, and early vocal group sounds with just a dash of Cajun seasoning, McLain’s best sides of the 1960s and ’70s (collected on the 1990 Ace Records collection Sweet Dreams) made ideal use of his clear tenor voice and his subtle, inspired use of vibrato, and he was also a talented songwriter, penning Freddy Fender’s “If You Don’t Love Me Alone (Leave Me Alone),” along with some of his own best sides. McLain wasn’t able to follow up on the nationwide success of “Sweet Dreams,” and he primarily recorded for small regional labels and made his living with live work in the Southwest, but his fellow musicians held him in high regard, and in 2022, a few of his better-known fans (including C.C. Adcock, Elvis Costello, and Nick Lowe) helped him make a fine comeback album, I Ran Down Every Dream.
Tommy McLain was born on March 15, 1940 in Jonesville, Louisiana. He began playing guitar when he was five years old, and would in time add keyboards, drums, bass, and fiddle to his repertoire. When the upbeat sounds of rock & roll began to take root in New Orleans thanks to artists like Fats Domino and Little Richard, McLain became an immediate fan, and he got his start as a performer in Red Smiley’s group the Vel-Tones, alongside country singer turned fellow swamp pop legend Clint West. In the early ’60s, McLain followed West into the Boogie Kings, local legends in Louisiana, and the association helped him land booking on Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tours. McLain made his recording debut in 1964 with Clint West & the Boogie Kings on the single “Mr. Jeweler (I Won’t Be Needing the Ring)” b/w “Try to Find Another Man.” (McLain also landed a job as a radio DJ on KREH in Oakdale, Louisiana.) His first solo effort, “You Wouldn’t Know a Love If You Had One” b/w “If You Would Be True,” was released by the small MSL label in 1966 (McLain co-wrote the B-side), and a few months later, the same label brought out his cover of “Sweet Dreams.” (Once again, one of McLain’s tunes, “I Need You So,” was on the flipside.) The song took off in Louisiana and followed suit in the rest of the United States, in time rising to number 15 on the national singles charts, higher than Don Williams or Patsy Cline fared with their versions on the pop survey.
Despite the success of “Sweet Dreams” (which went on to sell three million copies), McLain and MSL were not able to come up with another nationwide hit, though he would have regional success with “Before I Grow Too Old,” “I Need You So,” “Try to Find Another Man,” and “No Tomorrows Now.” McLain continued to record occasionally, and performed regularly with his group the Mule Train Band; he and the group made a brief appearance in the 1975 Paul Newman vehicle The Drowning Pool. By his own admission, as his career was almost entirely dominated by live work in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, he developed a dangerous appetite for alcohol and drugs. He experienced a spiritual rebirth, and credited his new faith with helping him turn his back on his bad habits. In 1973, Charlie Gillett, a British writer and radio host, compiled an album of classic swamp pop tracks, Another Saturday Night: Classic Recordings from the Louisiana Bayous, which featured several McLain numbers, including “Before I Grow Too Old,” and the album developed a powerful reputation among U.K. music fans, and both Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe became McLain followers after discovering the disc, later getting to know the man personally. (Another British fan was Lily Allen, who not only cited “Before I Grow Too Old” as one of her eight favorite songs on the BBC Radio 4 program Desert Island Discs, but hired McLain and his band to perform the song at her wedding in 2011.)
The Louisiana guitarist, songwriter, and producer C.C. Adcock — whose father was a Tommy McLain fan after seeing him play with the Boogie Kings in the 1960s — became friends with McLain in the 1990s, and included him in his ad hoc band of Louisiana legends, Lil' Band O' Gold, who cut a pair of albums in 2000 and 2010. Adcock encouraged McLain to focus on songwriting, and as he was growing tired of his usual gigs in clubs and casinos, he was eager to explore new options. In 2019, an A&R rep from Decca Records heard rough demos of McLain’s new songs during a meeting at the South by Southwest Conference, and declared the label’s interest in a new Tommy McLain album. Both Costello and Lowe were eager to write songs with McLain, and the former offered to sing on the recording sessions. A variety of calamities interfered with the progress of the project — an arsonist burned down McLain’s home, he suffered a life-threatening heart attack that required cardiac surgery, and the COVID-19 pandemic forced McLain and Adcock to put the sessions on hold for nearly a year. In time, the album was completed, and while Decca opted not to release it, the American roots music label Yep Roc stepped in to bring it out. Featuring instrumental contributions from Van Dyke Parks, Ivan Neville, swamp pop star Warren Storm, Willie Nelson harmonica master Mickey Raphael, and Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados keyboard player Augie Meyers, I Ran Down Every Dream was released in August 2022. McLain supported the release with a number of live dates, including an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, several dates opening for Lucinda Williams, and a tour with Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets. ~ Mark Deming