The week before Christmas 2006 was a pivotal time for Andy McKee. The fingerstyle acoustic guitarist got the present every artist aspires to — fame, or at least a big jump-start for his career.
The week before Christmas 2006 was a pivotal time for Andy McKee. The fingerstyle acoustic guitarist got the present every artist aspires to — fame, or at least a big jump-start for his career.
The video of his song “Drifting” blew up, going viral on YouTube. To date, it’s received more than 50 million views, while his videos combined have received more than 200 million views.
“It’s something I’ve been trying to figure out for awhile,” McKee told the Tribune-Herald late last month in a phone interview from Florida, where he was touring. “I think it was a mix of things, like getting onto YouTube pretty early; back in 2006 it was still pretty new. And just playing the guitar a different way, visually. A lot of people had never seen anything like that before, and I think that helped. I had kind of a different look at that time, too. I had a shaved head and a big beard and what-not. So I think all those things combined. The music was interesting, the visual was unique and people were just gettin’ on to YouTube. And the thing went viral.”
The 35-year-old McKee, cleaner cut and 30 pounds slimmer than he was eight years ago, is in Hawaii on his “Mythmaker” world tour. He plays the first of four Big Island shows tonight, at Aloha Theater in Kona. He’ll appear Saturday night at Honokaa People’s Theatre, Sunday afternoon at Kilauea Theater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and Wednesday night at the Blue Dragon in Kawaihae.
Kona slack-key guitarist Chris Yeaton will open in Kona and Volcano, and New Zealand fingerstyle guitarist and singer-songwriter Brett Hallam Holland will open in Honokaa and Kawaihae.
McKee has never played on the Big Island, but has played at the now-defunct Cassis by Chef Mavro Restaurant in Honolulu in 2008.
“It was just kind of a funny little thing. I flew out there and played for a bit,” he said. “But this is the first real tour there, so I’m really lookin’ forward to it.”
As a teenager, McKee gravitated toward heavy metal music, but his life changed when he saw percussive acoustic guitarist Preston Reed in concert.
“I saw him when I was 16 years old and that got me really interested,” he said. “People have been tappin’ on guitars forever. In flamenco guitar, it’s really popular, with the percussion technique. I started writing my own music when I was 19 and tried to incorporate some of those ideas, trying to cover all aspects of the music at once. The acoustic guitar body is pretty much a drum; it’s just a hollow body you can bang on.”
McKee’s also become known for playing a medieval-looking stringed instrument called the harp guitar.
“The harp guitar has been around for hundreds of years, actually, in different shapes and sizes,” he said. “It was popular in Germany at one time. I discovered it through (the late) Michael Hedges, him playing it on an album. And I saw a musician named Stephen Bennett playing one, about 15 years ago. It was just fascinating seeing one actually being played. He and I became friends and he sold me one a few years after that. I was interested in it because of the expanded possibilities, having pretty much like a bass guitar attached to the guitar, and seeing what kind of music I could come up with it.”
McKee’s become so much a phenomenon, his percussive, flashy style, which sometimes features playing the fretboard overhand, is called “Drifting-style guitar.” That’s pretty heady stuff for a young man born and still living in Topeka, Kansas.
“It’s crazy, man. It’s a big honor to think that all of a sudden, I’m this guy who’s inspired people,” McKee said. “At all my shows, I meet fans after the show and that’s the favorite part of my night, really, getting to meet people and getting to hear what they have to say. And sometimes they tell me that they studied for their college exams and my music helped them to focus. People use my songs at their weddings. Occasionally, I’ll get people come up and tell me they named their daughter after one of my tunes, “Rylynn.” That just always blows my mind.”
Tonight’s Kona show is at 7:30 p.m. while Saturday’s Honokaa concert is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 general, $45 gold circle for both venues. Sunday’s HVNP matinee is at 2 p.m. with $25 general admission, $40 gold circle seating. Wednesday’s Kawaihae show is at 8 p.m. with all tickets $30.
Tickets are available at: CD Wizard, Hilo Guitars and Hilo Music Exchange in Hilo; Sound Wave Music and Kiernan Music in Kona; Waimea General Store in Parker Square; Taro Patch Gifts in Honokaa. Gold circle tickets are available online at www.lazarbear.com.
McKee will also conduct a guitar workshop at 2 p.m. Saturday at Honokaa People’s Theater. The fee is $25.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune- herald.com.