"This is what Texas blues is supposed to sound like! John McVey is a great guitarist but he's also got a feel for the real blues that you just don't hear on very many contemporary recordings." AMAZON.com

JOHN McVEY's no-nonsense blues approach and amazingly inventive guitar stylings make him one of the most soul-satisfying live acts on the scene. McVey, termed "a genuine Texas guitar genius" by AMAZON.COM, plays with fire and finesse on his Doc Blues Records debut, one featuring Kim Wilson and a star-studded backing band in addition to McVey's forceful guitar creativity.

Wes Race
Blues Spectator At Large ll-20-01
My take on John McVey is pretty straightforward: He greas'd his skillet & lit his fire in Little Rock, Arkansas and moved to Austin, Texas and cook'd. Starting out with Blues great Larry Davis and literally playing in "buckets of blood" on Little Rock's north and east sides, John noted: "You just had to play like you were going to fight somebody." He hung in there, gigging with Fenton Robison and former Earl Hooker vocalist Frank "Crying Shame" Clark. One evening, Albert King told a blues crowd, "Slim plays just like me. Trouble is, I'M Albert King!" John paid attention and started to develop his own sound. His Arkansas funk, playing-from-the-gut guitar stylings were further enhanced when Larry Davis turned him on to the classic recordings of Earl Hooker and Magic Sam.

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John McVey's - Gone To Texas

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By Richard Bush

Can't really put my finger on what it is that makes this John McVey disc so enjoyable. He does exactly the things that normally turn me away from repeated listening, but I've been unable to keep in out of the cd player. He employs a variety of guitar effects that usually dooms a blues release in my book. His vocals are exactly stupendous and actually lack much range. Maybe, there is just something in his delivery, method, technique or something (told you that I couldn't I couldn't put my finger on it) that makes it all work marvelously well.
He reverberates, wah-wahs and adds a little fuzzy stuff sometimes in the same song. He may just be the Junior Watson of Texas, not because he has anywhere near a West Coast style, but because of the surprises and twists he throws out with his strat and how he manages to make it all fit tastefully into the context of the song. Before moving to Texas, McVey tutored around Little Rock under Larry Davis who turned him onto the likes of Magic Sam and Earl Hooker who were masters at using reverb and effects pedals, respectively. He apparently learned his lessons well as this cd testifies that he knows just how to blend and bend his tones effectively and make them work within a song's boundaries and not distract from it.

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