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Gerard McMahon | |
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Birth name | Gerard Thomas McMahon |
Also known as | Gerard McMann G Tom Mac G |
Origin | Birmingham, West Midlands, England |
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Occupations |
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Instruments |
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Years active | 1971–present |
Labels | Edge Artists |
Website | gtommac |
Gerard Thomas McMahon, also known as Gerard McMann and G Tom Mac, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer who specialises in creating music for films and TV. His gothic rock anthem "Cry Little Sister" was recorded in 1987 for the soundtrack album of the cult horror film The Lost Boys .
Gerard McMahon emigrated with his family from England to America when he was eleven. Initially moving to New York City, the McMahons moved again a few years later, eventually settling in Wichita, Kansas. When McMahon, who lists amongst his musical influences Liam Mullen, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder and Stravinsky, was sixteen, he and his band, The Strangers, recorded a single ("Don't Ever Leave Me") before disbanding.
After The Strangers disbanded, McMahon moved to Boulder, Colorado and sat in on music classes at the university. [1] In 1971 he moved to New York City to pursue a performing career. His first gigs were playing bass and guitar in R&B bands in Harlem. Being a versatile multi-instrumentalist, McMahon was soon receiving additional offers of work as a session musician. It was in this capacity that he provided backing vocals at Electric Lady Studios in New York, on the last Zephyr album to feature Tommy Bolin, Going Back to Colorado. [2] [ failed verification ] [3] [ failed verification ]
In addition to gigging and studio session work, McMahon also became involved around this time in creating music for TV commercials. He also created a number of scores for Public Broadcasting Service projects. [4]
McMahon spent 1972 living in Los Angeles, gaining further experience in studio and production work. [1] Soon he was to be found playing bass with Jackson Browne's touring band. It wasn't too long, however, before McMahon concluded that it would be more rewarding to promote his own solo career, and he went back to Colorado. [1]
After returning to Boulder, McMahon got together with a group of ten studio musicians and fronted an act called Gerard. [4]
"After attending a concert one evening that showcased Tommy Bolin, Chicago producer Jim Guercio walked out mesmerized by Gerard's opening set."
— G.Brown, author, Colorado Rocks!: A Half-Century of Music in Colorado [4]
Guercio offered the band a deal to record an album at his newly built Caribou Ranch. The resultant album, produced by Guercio himself, was Gerard . [5] It was released in 1976 on Guercio's Caribou Records label. There did, however, seem to be one downside to this union, seemingly echoed in McMahon's frustration with the music press at that time, in so far as every review of Gerard's album, an album for which he had written twelve original songs, compared his music to that of Chicago's. [4] Although the album did well, it never broke nationally. [4] The lead-off single, "Hello Operator" (b/w "Who's Your Daddy-O?"), failed to hit Billboard's Hot 100 chart, getting as high as No. 109 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. [6] The second single, "Good Yankee Boy," was released as a promo-only single, and garnered only moderate radio airplay in 1976. [7] A second Gerard album, Row , was to follow before the group disbanded, [8] [ failed verification ] [9] after which McMahon decided to return to Los Angeles.
The next three years saw McMahon again partaking in a number of different musical projects and continuing to lend his services as a session musician. One of the projects he undertook at that time was to play keyboards on ex-Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Jimmy Ibbotson's 1977 Nitty Gritty Ibbotson album. [10] He is also listed amongst the credits for Max Gronenthal's 1979 album Whistling in the Dark. [11] [ failed verification ]
McMahon's 1979 song "Is That You?" was the first track on Kiss' Unmasked (1980) and was also released as a single and played live by Kiss in 1980. Producer Vini Poncia heard the demo, with Gary Mallaber on drums and Kenny Lee Lewis on bass, and presented it to Kiss, who loved the song. In 1988, McMahon and Paul Stanley met and wrote 3-4 songs intended for Robert Plant, with whom McMahon worked at the time. [12]
Encouraged by Billy Joel's former manager Irwin Mazur, in 1980 McMahon decided to promote his own recording career.[ citation needed ] He assembled a group called Kid Lightning – Gary Mallaber, John Massaro, Kenny Lewis and two of the musicians he had engaged for Gerard, guitarist Steve Sykes and keyboard player Al Campbell – and recorded the album Blue Rue . [13] [ failed verification ] After the album was completed, McMahon's band was dropped from Columbia Records.
Already experienced in major TV commercials, McMahon began film work. [14] [ self-published source ] He wrote and recorded seven songs for producer Jerry Bruckheimer's film Defiance . [15]
"Gerard's a triple threat, he's a writer, he's a producer and he's a performer...it's very difficult to find someone to deliver all that"
During the '80s, McMahon wrote songs for films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Spring Break, All the Right Moves, The Lonely Guy, Grandview, U.S.A. and Hardbodies.
McMahon's next album, No Looking Back, was released by Warner Bros. in 1983, after which McMahon signed with the Atlantic Records label and in 1986 released Foreign Papers.
McMahon scored a hit in 1986 with "Cry Little Sister."
McMahon recorded another album in 2000 for Edge Artists. [17] To record and promote the album, McMahon formed a new band, G TOM MAC, with bassist, songwriter and co-producer Anthony Silver. McMahon and Silver added Rodney "Cortada" Alejandro on keyboards, drummer Rob Ladd (from the band The Pressure Boys), Willy Aron (lead guitar) and Brie Darling (from the band Boxing Gandhis) on backing vocals and percussion for live performances. [18]
In 2004 McMahon wrote the music and Eddie Kislinger wrote the lyrics for "Wicked Town," "Drop Dead Pretty," and "Was It Magic" for Witchblade The Music , an Edge Artists soundtrack of songs from or inspired by the Witchblade TV series. McMahon and Kislinger are credited as Executive Producers. In 2012 The CW used "Wicked Town" in its trailer promoting the Arrow TV series.
All the following songs are written and performed by Gerard McMahon unless otherwise stated:
Year | Film/TV Show | Song Information | Co writer | Performed by |
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1980 | Defiance [19] [ failed verification ] | "Bad Times" | Tavares | |
"Un Tipo Malo" '"Hot Town Streets" | Gerard McMahon | |||
1982 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High [20] | "The Look in Your Eyes" | Gerard McMahon | |
1983 | Spring Break [21] [ failed verification ] | "One of These Days" | Gerard McMahon | |
All the Right Moves [22] [ failed verification ] | "Mr. Popularity" | Winston Ford | ||
1984 | The Lonely Guy | "Oughta Know Love By Now" | Winston Ford | |
"Don't Call Me Lonely" | Gerard McMahon | |||
Hardbodies | "Smile for the Camera" | Gerard McMahon | ||
Grandview, USA | "Face The Odds" | Gerard McMahon | ||
1987 | The Lost Boys | "Cry Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys)" | Michael Mainieri | Gerard McMann |
1995 | Kicking and Screaming | "In a Twilight Moment" | Phoebe Snow | |
Born To Be Wild | "One World for Us" | Gerard McMahon | ||
1996 | Vampirella | "Bleed for Me" | Roger Daltrey | |
No Way Home | "Ghost in the Heart" | Gerard McMahon | ||
1997 | Chasing Amy | "My Stomp, My Beat" | Vicki Sue Robinson | |
Fame L.A. | "You Don't Reject Me" | Eddie Kislinger | Stephanie Dicker | |
"Wake Up the House" | Vonda Shepard | Brent Fraser | ||
1998 | The Players Club [23] [ failed verification ] | "Money Can't Buy You Love" | Frank Fitzpatrick | K-Ci & JoJo |
Implicated | "If I Have You" | Jennifer Gross | ||
2001 | Witchblade Season 1 | "Child Of Mine" (Episode 2 "Conundrum") [24] | Roger Daltrey | Roger Daltrey feat. Gerard McMahon |
"Cry Little Sister" (remix) (Episode 11 "Transcendence") [25] | Michael Mainieri | G TOM MAC | ||
"Child Of Mine" (Episode 11 "Transcendence") [25] [ dead link ] | Roger Daltrey | Roger Daltrey feat. Gerard McMahon | ||
2002 | Witchblade Season 2 | "Cry Little Sister" (Episode 6 "Nailed") [26] | Michael Mainieri | Gerard McMann |
"Child Of Mine" (remix) (Episode 8 "Hierophant") [26] [ dead link ] | Roger Daltrey | Roger Daltrey feat. G Tom Mac | ||
The Banger Sisters | "Child Of Mine" | Roger Daltrey | Roger Daltrey feat. G Tom Mac | |
The Shield Season 1 [27] | "Sugar Fine" (Episode 7 "Pay in Pain") | Gerard McMahon | ||
2003 | From Justin to Kelly | "The Game" | John Van Eps | Gabriellis Kaye |
As the World Turns [28] [ failed verification ] [29] | "Once Betrayed" (Episode broadcast 13 May 2003) | G TOM MAC | ||
The Skulls III | "That's What The Thrill Really Is (instrumental version)" | G TOM MAC | ||
"That's What The Thrill Really Is" (instrumental version) | Jennifer Grais | |||
Sunset Junction (A Documentary Film) | "Sunset Junction" | G TOM MAC | ||
2005 | Scrubs Season 4 | "Half" (Episode 25 "My Changing Ways") | G TOM MAC | |
2006 | I-See-You.Com | "I See You" | G TOM MAC |
McMahon has also contributed to all the following films and TV shows:
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, known as the Dirt Band from 1978 to 1983, is an American band founded in Long Beach, California, in 1966. Since 2018, the band has consisted of Jeff Hanna and his son Jaime Hanna, both guitarists and vocalists, along with Jimmie Fadden, Bob Carpenter, Ross Holmes, and Jim Photoglo.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken is the seventh studio album by American country music group The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released in November 1972, through United Artists Records. The album was a collaboration with many famous bluegrass and country-and-western players, including Roy Acuff, "Mother" Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Merle Travis, Pete "Oswald" Kirby, Norman Blake, Jimmy Martin, and others. It also introduced fiddler Vassar Clements to a wider audience.
Caribou Ranch was a recording studio built by producer James William Guercio in 1972 in a converted barn on ranch property in the Rocky Mountains near Nederland, Colorado, on the road that leads to the ghost town of Caribou. The studio was in operation until it was damaged in a fire in March 1985. The ranch hosted some of the most prominent acts of the 1970s and 80s and was closely associated with the band Chicago, who recorded five consecutive albums there between 1973 and 1977.
Symphonion Dream is the ninth album by American country music band The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. They were joined by guest musicians Leon Russell and Linda Ronstadt, along with actor Gary Busey, who was credited as "Teddy Jack Eddy", and played various percussion instruments.
"Fishin' in the Dark" is a song written by Wendy Waldman and Jim Photoglo, and recorded by American country music group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, with Jimmy Ibbotson singing lead vocals. It was released on June 7, 1987, as the second single from their album Hold On. The song reached number one on the country charts of both Billboard in the United States and RPM in Canada, and has been described as the band's signature song.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two is the nineteenth studio album by American country folk group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released on May 1, 1989. The album follows the same concept as the band's 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured guest performances from many notable country music stars.
Blue Sky – Night Thunder is the fourth album by American singer-songwriter Michael Murphey and is considered one of the seminal albums of his career. Released in 1975, it produced two major hit singles—the platinum-certified "Wildfire" and "Carolina in the Pines"—and established him as a major force in popular music. Members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band provided backing on some of the tracks.
Paul Worley is an American record producer and session guitarist, known primarily for his work in country music. Formerly a vice president at Sony BMG, he later joined the staff of Warner Bros. Records' Nashville division as chief creative officer. Since leaving Warner in the early 2000s, Worley has worked mainly as a record producer for other acts, such as Big & Rich, as well as an occasional session guitarist. He is most widely known as the co- producer of the self-titled debut album of Lady Antebellum (2008) and as one of the producers of their second album, Need You Now (2010). He also discovered the Dixie Chicks and, with Blake Chancey, co-produced their first two albums.
Gerard is an album by the Colorado band Gerard, led by singer/songwriter Gerard McMahon. It was recorded at Caribou Ranch in Colorado and was released in 1976. The album was produced by James William Guercio, who also produced Chicago's early albums.
Al Campbell is a keyboard player. He was in the 1980s band Kid Lightning. In 1981 Kid Lightning released an album with Gerard McMahon of "Cry Little Sister" fame.
The following albums, singles and EPs released by English singer-songwriter Gerard McMahon under the pseudonyms Gerard, Gerard McMahon, Gerard McMann and G TOM MAC.
Bang Bang Bang is the 1999 album from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The title track reached number 52 on the US Country chart. The track "Down the Road" was originally recorded by Mac McAnally, and would later be a No. 1 in 2008 when he re-recorded it with Kenny Chesney.
All the Good Times is the fifth studio album from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released in January 1972.
The Christmas Album is the 1997 album from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. This album reached 93 on the US Country charts.
James Arvey Ibbotson is an American musician who is best known as a longtime member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He has also released albums as a solo artist, as a member of the Wild Jimbos, and with John McEuen.
Nitty Gritty Ibbotson is the first solo album by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member, Jimmy Ibbotson, released in 1977. Ibbotson left the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at the end 1975, but rejoined them a few years later.
Wild Jimbos is the 1991 album by Wild Jimbos. Wild Jimbos is Jim Salestrom, Jimmy Ibbotson and Jim Ratts. Salestrom was a member of Dolly Parton's band. Ibbotson was a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, as a songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. Ratts is a member of Runaway Express.
Women & Waves is the 2000 album by Jimmy Ibbotson. Ibbotson is a former member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Twenty Years of Dirt, subtitled The Best of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, is the second compilation album from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It is a collection of hits from their career to that point. The album contained one new song, "Stand a Little Rain", which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The album reached 10 on the US Country charts and was certified platinum.
More Great Dirt is the 1989 album from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It is subtitled The Best of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Vol. II, making it a sequel to Twenty Years of Dirt. The songs on this compilation are from albums released from 1984 through 1988. This album reached No. 38 on the US country chart and was certified gold.
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