Anne McCue

Early life and education

McCue grew up in Campbelltown, an area southwest of Sydney and graduated from Saint Patrick's college and the University of Technology, Sydney with a degree in Film Production and Film Studies. She is a Singer, songwriter, Guitarist, Multi-Instrumentalist, producer, Engineer and Video Director.

Music career

McCue's first band was based in Sydney and was called Vertigo after the Alfred Hitchcock film.

In 1988, McCue moved to Melbourne and took guitar lessons from Bruce Clarke. Answering an ad in the local press, she joined all-female rock band Girl Monstar as lead guitarist (1988–1993). The band had two Number One hits on the Australian Independent Charts and eventually received an ARIA nomination for best independent act.

Following her stint with Girl Monstar, she played acoustically around Melbourne, later performing in Vietnam for a year before returning to Melbourne to record her Laughing EP (1996). She then joined Australian female trio Eden AKA, who signed to Columbia Records in the USA. They released a self-titled album and performed in Canada and the USA at the Lilith Fair in 1998 and 1999.

After signing with L.A. based manager, Mike Gormley, McCue's first solo album, Amazing Ordinary Things, was released in 1999 in Canada and Japan, and she toured with a number of well-known musicians, including a US tour with Lucinda Williams, who would often introduce McCue as "my new favorite artist... and an amazing guitarist". Williams later included McCue on her Starbucks' 'Artist's Choice' compilation alongside Paul Westerberg, John Coltrane, Ryan Adams, patti Griffin and Leonard Cohen.

McCue's success on the Lucinda Williams tour prompted the release of a live album, Live: Ballad of an Outlaw Woman, recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California, and her first Messenger Records release, Roll.

Roll also received numerous critical accolades, with Los Angeles Weekly stating that the Australian performer had more "all-American authenticity than a dozen Martina McBrides" and Entertainment Weekly drawing comparisons to Lucinda Williams and Canadian alt-country singer Kathleen Edwards. Bob Harris from the BBC went as far as to call it his album of the year, and she toured internationally to promote the album.

McCue released her album Koala Motel on Messenger Records in 2006. She completed an international tour to promote the album. She relocated from Los Angeles to Nashville. In August 2007, McCue was invited by Deborah Conway to take part in the Broad Festival project, which toured major Australian cities including performing at the Sydney Opera House. With McCue and Conway were Sally Seltmann, Jade Macrae and Abbe May – they performed their own and each other's songs.

Her song "Stupid" (ROLL) is included in the Time Life Collection, "4 Decades of Folk Rock." She was voted Folk Artist of 2008 by the Roots Music Association. McCue recorded and produced her next album herself at her Flying Machine Studio. It was East of Electric, released August 2008. The first single from her next album, Broken Promise Land, 'Don't Go To Texas' was made available on iTunes and released in November 2009. The new album 'Broken Promise Land' was released on 18 May 2010.

McCue produced and recorded two albums for other artists in 2009 – Tracey Bunn's "By The Wayside" and Denise DeSimone's "Pray Peace".

She also directed the videos for Amelia White's "Even Angels" and Tracey Bunn's "Shut Up And Let Me Breathe".

McCue was a finalist in the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards for Folk/Singer-Songwriter Album.

The DVD "Live in Nashville" was released on Flying Machine in 2011. In 2011 McCue released two cover version singles, Leonard Cohen's 'Bird on a Wire' and The Divinyls' 'Pleasure And Pain'. She formed the band 'Yeah No Yeah' with Simon Kerr and they released their first single and video, 'Happy Alone'.

In 2013 McCue released her version of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born To Run' and began recording her new album 'Blue Sky Thinkin.

In March 2014 she started the radio show "Songs on the Wire" which features an eclectic program of music and live interviews and is broadcast on East Nashville Radio.

In February 2015, McCue released Blue Sky Thinkin' a collection or original songs reminiscent of swing era jazz. The album is a return to her early days in music. In an interview, she noted, "In my earlier existence as a young guitar player in Melbourne, I wanted to be a jazz guitar player. I was studying jazz guitar. I was making my living playing jazz music, more like singing and playing guitar. ... So for me [Blue Sky Thinkin'] was more like going back to that. ... I love the guitar tone of that era. I love the sound of the recordings. To me it’s very warm sounding. I don’t think it’s ever sounded better than that. So I was trying to get those sounds. I’ve listened to Charlie Christian a lot. And also to Django [Reinhardt ]. It was just natural. I didn’t force it. I didn’t tell myself I’m going to make a Charlie Christian type song or do a Django song. I just wanted to do it. I’ve played that stuff a lot and I wanted to write songs in that style."

Solo discography

Compilations

As Guitarist and/or Singer

As Producer and/or Engineer

As Video Director and/or Editor