Cameron McGill at The Cowboy Monkey

By my count, Cameron McGill is 131 years old and apparently was involved as a theologian until he attempted suicide which probably got him expelled. Whether he had time to gather his things or was promptly booted out was never clearly stated in the history book nor the next 100 years of his life, but thankfully he started putting out records in Chicago in 2004. To take some of the fog off the window, it seems to me that there actually is no person in the band named Cameron McGill and whether or not a real Cameron McGill existed to both be a priest and an avant follower of Freud and Jung, the story creates the vehicle in which a multitude of styles and sounds can be heard.
Cameron McGill’s first album, Stories of The Knife and The Back (2004), describes a youth who leaves his mountain village to become a poet. His albums thereafter follow this character in his adventures in learning about himself and achieving greater musical stature which involved working with a group called What Army to make a sound full of Midwestern twang, quartet, pots’n’pans, and some well crafted sound writing. The music spectrum covers a lot of ground with Noah Harris of the Elanors doing the vocals and a multitude of other instruments with about 12 other players listed as members contributing upright and electric bass, guitar, drums, piano, as well as a full string quartet.
Their set kicks at the reopened musical venue Cowboy Monkey on May 22 at 11 p.m. for the free Thursday series breaking the Monkey back into the Champaign music scene. The group will be doing a duel guitar, bass, drums, piano set without the entire army of strings but it should make an impressive show for any 131 year old you’ve ever met.

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