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On the Move: Antsy McClain
Antsy McClain is a rising star on the American folk-country music scene. He was born Ronald Joseph McClain, son of a truck driver, and grew up in Pine View Heights trailer park in Kentucky. McClain worked as a Japanese interpreter before forming his band the Trailer Park Troubadours and lives in Nashville with his wife Polly and their five children
You’re probably looking at the name in the top right-hand corner of this page and thinking: “Antsy who? What kind of a name is Antsy?” Well, you may not have heard of him yet, but Antsy McClain is a rising star on America’s folk-country scene.
His band the Trailer Park Troubadours are already a cult hit across the Atlantic where American kids are rediscovering a new sort of country music, more relevant to their mixed-up 21st century lives than the old-fashioned love songs of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers or the commercial country rock of – Lord preserve us – Shania Twain.
McClain mixes subtle observation, humour and pathos in songs about his childhood growing up on a Kentucky trailer park with a truck driver dad and an “Avon lady” mom. He laments the frustrations of dysfunctional relationships in Joan of Arkansas and the quiet tragedies behind the slickness of modern American life in Primer Gray Impala. He also pens bittersweet love songs with thought-provoking lines such as: “Your sweet talk made me love you, but Prozac made me stay.”
The “Troubs”, with their mix of country, folk and rock – McClain calls it “folkabilly” – have built up a loyal fan base and now Willie Nelson, country’s dope-smoking elder statesman, has given them his seal of approval by guest-starring on McClain’s next solo album.
Last week McClain, a broad-shouldered, energetic bear of a man in his mid-forties with a rockabilly quiff and 1950s-style spectacles, landed in London to play his first UK gig. Performing in Slough, spiritual home of the industrial estate, was hardly an auspicious first taste of the land of his forebears, but McClain is used to doing things the hard way.
“We never went to bed hungry when I was growing up,” he says in his warm, southern drawl. “But what we ate was sometimes interesting. I remember scraping out the peanut butter jar with stale bread or using up the dregs from the cereal boxes with powdered milk. We had a lot of powdered milk in our home. It was cheaper but, man, even now, the smell of it . . . eugh.”
McClain’s boyhood trailer in Kentucky was just 16ft wide by about 25ft long, with a bedroom at either end, a living and cooking area in between and a bathroom somewhere in the middle. Despite the lack of cash, McClain - the Antsy bit comes from him being such a hyperactive child - has fond memories of his trailer park days. “I remember lying on my bunk on rainy nights, just listening to the drumming of the rain against the tin roof,” he recalls.
McClain’s father scraped a hard-earned living driving trucks for Wonder Bread, maker of all-American white sliced bread. The singer remembers sitting high up in the truck’s cab as his father drove to Chicago, Miami or Atlanta. “I was only about seven or eight, so I imagine it was probably illegal,” he says, “But I just loved it. I think that’s where I got my wanderlust from – seeing so much of a very big country, but knowing there is so much more out there.”
He’s not fussy about what he travels in either, as evidenced by his choice of car - a four-year-old Hyundai Elantra. “It has four doors,” he says - there really aren’t too many selling points. “A car these days is just a pod that takes me from one place to another.”
His first car was a bit more special. A 1970 Chevrolet Impala that he saved up for and bought for $1,000 when he was 17. “It was an ugly green colour, but it ran great – big seats and plenty of room for all my friends to pile in and go for joyrides out in the country.
“I could fit about 20 teenagers in that car, but that was in the Seventies and Americans were skinnier then.”
McClain’s parents split up when he was 12; his father had a nervous breakdown, struggled with depression for some time after and lost contact with his son for several years. “It was a painful thing,” recalls Antsy. “But you know poverty breeds a lot of byproducts.”
It wasn’t long after the divorce that McClain picked up a guitar for the first time. “I would make up songs, but at 13 I hadn’t experienced enough of life to get away with it. I’d write a love song about whichever girlfriend I was dating that week and it would just sound trite.”
His wanderlust took him to Japan, where he learnt the language and taught English, before returning home to work as a Japanese interpreter. Travelling around America to meet clients, he would schlep his guitar and notebook from hotel to hotel, and after his writing improved he bought an eight-track recorder and cut his first demos.
With an old friend from the trailer park days, he formed the Trailer Park Troubadours and gradually the gigs started rolling in. Around about that time, he met and fell in love with Polly - known affectionately as Polyester - now his wife of 24 years, and mother of his three daughters and two sons, aged between 11 and 22. They live in a big house in a suburb of Nashville, but McClain remains proud of his mobile-home roots.
“You know you are looked down upon. The phrase is ‘trailer trash’ or ‘white trash’. I heard that a lot growing up. So I don’t look down on people. I have a great affection for the people I grew up with.
“The sort of old vintage trailer parks are really, culturally, rather cool now. But they’re being wiped out by developers,” he says sorrowfully. “But I’m still always moving around, still very mobile. That wanderlust will never leave me. My coffin will definitely have wheels.”
My stuff... On my CD player I discovered Bob Dylan about five years ago. Someone gave me his album Desire and it just opened up my eyes. I listen to all sorts of things. At the moment it’s a lot of Modest Mouse [with Johnny Marr, from the Smiths, on guitar] and Uncle Walt’s Band – they’re not around any more, but I love them
On my DVD player I just watched some Wim Wenders movies, you know, Wings of Desire. My son is in film school and he’s turning me on to great foreign films
In my parking space A Hyundai Elantra, a little Korean car, it’s got good gas mileage
I would never throw away My mother’s journals. She didn’t have many material things when she died but I have her voice with me still
For more information on Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours go to www.unhitched.com
Yes I think they are brilliant, very talented musicians. I have a dvd and several cd,s of them, and I am an old Hank Williams and Elvis fan, brother, talk about old,?, Im sixty five. Might see you in Scotland some day, there is a yearly Country and Western festival, a week long, down Stranraer way, you should check it out. You would be instant hits.
Hugh McGunigel, Glasgow, Scotland
Great interview! I've seen Antsy live a few times and he's so much more in person than one can put on paper. He's all heart and bouncing with talent. He's amazing.
shashi, whereimat, usa
These guys are AWESOME!!! Been following them for years. Antsy is very down to earth - talks to fans after gigs. What amazes me is that they are great musicians AND showmen - very difficult to master.
Their shows are a a musical feast for the eyes and ears. You will always be entertained.
Jacki, Harleysville, PA, USA