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Music on the Road

'Runaway' with the Pat McGee Band

By Paul Vercammen
CNN Showbiz Today Reports

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The Pat McGee Band has crisscrossed the country as often as a long-haul trucker, carrying with it a cargo of melodic rock steeped in McGee's traditional influences.

"I'm a big classic rock head," says the 28-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist. "Led Zeppelin, Allman Brothers, Beatles."

The Pat McGee Band, formed in Richmond, Virginia, in 1996, has covered an estimated 500,000 miles of America since then, with 250 concert stops per year.

Positive word-of-mouth about these road warriors has spread like gossip, hopping over backyard fences into watering holes and through college dormitories, especially along the Eastern Seabord.

Fans have converted friends to this low-tech band with its three-part harmonies and some of the fluid acoustic riffing that helped Dave Matthews, also from Virginia, spring to rock stardom.

	VIDEO
The Pat McGee Band performs 'Runaway' at James Madison University (October 17) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"We would play like every weekend," recalls McGee. "Friday, Saturday, Sunday at a different college or an outdoor festival or local bar -- whatever it was."

McGee still tours the college circuit, and sells out larger venues, including the 7,000-seat Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia.

But it began for McGee in much more modest settings, strumming away solo above idle chitchat and percolating pots in coffee shops while a student at Longwood College in Virginia.

McGee started recording his songs and selling CDs out of a backpack at school. He later added the bandmates and, with the help of his mother Lynn McGee, reeled in more fans.

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"She was handling everything that had to do with press," says McGee. "And then she move to the e-mails, all day long she deals with e-mails. She personally responds to everyone of them so she is on the computer nine, 10 hours a day."

Hard work paid off with a record deal for The Pat McGee Band. Their current album, "Shine," is produced by Jerry Harrison, the former "Talking Heads" member.

Meanwhile, the band just keeps on trucking. Next stop Auburn University, then Syracuse, then the University of Virginia, as Pat McGee puts more miles on his odometer and vocal cords.

The Pat McGee Band performs its first single "Runaway" in this week's "Music on the Road" segment.

Pat McGee Band

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