Edwin McCain’s voice is everywhere. At any given moment, a radio station is playing one of his songs. An American Idol hopeful is belting out “I’ll Be.” A newlywed couple is dancing to “I Could Not Ask for More.” There’s Edwin singing the National Anthem before the Atlanta Braves and the Dodgers play for the pennant. Before a NASCAR race at Talladega. And at the NBA Finals. We hear him in over 100 concert halls throughout the country every year, and that’s not even counting the performances at the Super Bowl Village and fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity, the Wildflower Camp Foundation, Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang and so many more. McCain’s innate ability to write and perform songs that somehow every listener claims as their own has made him one of the most enduring and downright likable entertainers of our generation.
The New York Times dubs Edwin the “great American romantic,” and his fans do certainly agree but it’s the FUN that brings them back to his concerts every single time he comes through town. Edwin roars through soulful renditions of his songs, tosses in irrepressible vintage R&B rhythms and turns his concerts into parties. His between-song-banter is more stand-up than rock star, drawing as many laughs as cheers.
“It’s not about chart positions or record sales or anything like that,” insists the man with 11 albums, a wall of platinum and gold albums that have sold in the millions, and reams of Top 10, 20 and 40 hits, “it just has to do with people coming together and sharing a moment, that's it. And that’s all I ever wanted to do. I just love that moment in the small club and bar where every single person in there has a moment where it’s silent and they get it and it’s beautiful, that moment where the music that’s coming off the stage is much more than the players and much more than the audience and something happens and you’re sitting there and your hair stands up. That’s it, man. I love it.”