by Bridget McQuillan
Lloyd McCarter remembers the days when he listened to traditional country music as a boy. He remembers trying to keep his heavy eyes open before falling asleep against a set of speakers while his father sang Ray Price and Merle Haggard songs. He remembers listening to Johnny Cash and learning to play guitar like the famed musician. He remembers the days when country was about life experience, “which is what people crave in music,” he says. Years later, McCarter, with his band Lloyd McCarter and the Honky Tonk Revival, is making the music he remembers as a boy.
McCarter shared his music on the corner of 13th and O Friday, July 20 at Hear Lincoln (a weekly music series sponsored by the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, with bands presented by Hear Nebraska), the same day his new EP, Tired of Being Me, debuted at the Zoo Bar. With a guitar emblazoned with a “What Would Johnny Cash Do?” sticker, McCarter simply wants to play country music that’s traditional and true. He draws from his own and others' experiences when he writes his songs, and wants to play music that will live on — rather than music that will simply sell.
“I think music now is done more for the money rather than for the heart and soul of the music. It has no longevity like what Johnny Cash had," he says. "That’s what real music has in it ... a story — something people can relate to.”
Missed Lloyd McCarter at Hear Lincoln last week? Watch him and the band perform in the video below and don’t miss out on this Friday’s Hear Lincoln event, featuring AZP.
Bridget McQuillan is a Hear Nebraska intern. She gained a new appreciation for Lincoln last week while thrifting with Angie Norman and hanging at the Zoo Bar in the middle of the day. Reach her at bridgetm@hearnebraska.org.
