Welcome to My Music Mondays. Each week I will be delving into my music collection and looking at a new artist going somewhat randomly currently but eventually from A to Z. I’ll examine why I first started listening to them, my favorite album and my top 10 songs for the artist. As my music collection is pretty extensive and I have a lot of one offs, I have set a qualification to be featured here. That is that I have to have at least two albums of the artist’s music before they can be considered. This week I look at the Pat McGee Band.

I’m not going to make any lame excuses about it. I dislike summer. I dislike the heat. I dislike the long days of sunlight. I pretty much dislike everything about it and would prefer to stay indoors away from the retina burning light of the sun. However its generally frowned upon so in an effort to stay social I do venture out in the sunlight on occasion. One thing that helps me get through the long, heat filled days (besides copious amounts of vodka) is music.

I have a very particular taste in music when summer roles around though, the music should generally be upbeat but not very heavy, almost laid back in a way but filled with the positive vibes that the sun is sucking out of my soul every minute I have to be out in it. Over the next few weeks for My Music Monday’s I am going to highlight some of my favorite “summer” bands. That’s not to say that their music isn’t good for me during more ideal forms of weather (like maybe a blizzard) but listening to these bands during the hot summer months always makes me feel less like killing small children than normal.

The first band on my small checklist is the Pat McGee Band. Some people have compared the Virginia based band to the Dave Matthews Band and I guess that isn’t a bad comparison being as both bands are quite similar in style. I don’t happen to like the Dave Matthews Band very much, mostly due to Matthews vocal styling. McGee in my opinion is a much better singer and the band is more focused on melodies and harmonies than just jamming. And maybe it is the fact that McGee never hit it big but I have always gotten a very approachable vibe from the guy and that is something I like a lott. Like many other bands I have “discovered” over the years, I came across the Pat McGee Band when they were opening for another band I was going to see. They put on a great live show and their music is uplifting, if a bit mellow, a perfect reason for them to work as summer music for me.

Favorite Album: Shine

Shine is a folksy-rock record with a nice mellow feel to it and I find myself listening to it a lot more recently.

10 Favorite Songs

10. Annabel
9. Now
8. Beautiful Ways
7. At It Again
6. Don’t Give Up
5. Must Have Been Love
4. Runaway
3. Rebecca
2. Shine
1. Haven’t Seen For A While

So what do you think of Pat McGee Band? Better yet, how many have even heard of them? They seem pretty regional to the East Coast.