Pamela McNeill
Minnesota-based songwriter and powerhouse vocalist Pamela McNeill is releasing a new six song EP, titled Wave After Wave. It was recorded at Soul Train Studios in Nashville, produced by John Richardson and Adam Ollendorff. Wave After Wave is being released on 12” LP vinyl July 26 and as a digital download and via streaming services August 2 on Richardson’s Farm to Label Records label.
McNeill was joined in the studio by Tom Bukovac on guitars, bassist Rachel Loy, Billy Justineau providing keyboards, Sarah Buxton on backing vocals and co-producers Ollendorff and Richardson on acoustic and electric guitar and drums respectively. There was a real energy and synergistic vibe going on between all these musicians in the studio while making Wave After Wave.
Between finding the Motown-esque groove for “Boys Lie” to the angst-driven guitars on “In My Next Life” or creating the open space of the highway on “Give Back My Love,” they took each song to its highest level. The highlight for everyone was “The Ocean.” The band captured the power and majesty of the Atlantic in ONE take! It was like they were riding a wave together and just kept going and building it until the end. The emotions were palpable and as they finished the song everyone knew something special had happened.
To date, Pamela has released seven solo albums since 2001: American Breakup, Nightingale, Heartaches and Miracles, Hurtsville, USA, Solitary, and Neon Lightning. Solitary was nominated for 2020 Album of the Year at the Midwest CMA Awards. Averaging 150 shows a year, she toured in support of every album and opened for Etta James, Little River Band (twice), Atlanta Rhythm Section and Bachman, Turner Overdrive, to name a few. She has played numerous festivals and theaters in support of her original music.
As a songwriter she has written with Grammy award winners Bobby E. Boyd (“Bless the Broken Road” – Rascal Flatts) and Jim Peterik (“Eye of the Tiger”), Pam Tillis, Buffy Lawson, Roxie Dean and many others and recently caught the ear of Reba McEntire as well as the late famed producer Busbee. She played the iconic “Bluebird Café” in Nashville, TN twice ‘in the round’ – where she earned a standing ovation after her first performance.
Pamela McNeill grew up between the Mississippi River and Highway 61 in the small town of Minnesota City, Minnesota. She was raised in a home musically divided. Her mom brought home pop records like The Supremes, Leslie Gore and Simon and Garfunkel, while her dad was all about country music, and these mixed influences can still be heard in McNeill’s music today. McNeill recalls, “I decided when I was 3 years old that I was going to be a singer and that was that! I spent my entire allowance buying pop records, and I learned how to play keys on an old upright piano and my grandmother’s Hammond organ.” In junior high and high school she played trombone in the band, jazz band and orchestra and continued to study classical piano. In 8th grade she wrote an orchestral arrangement for “Sleigh Ride” for her Winona Junior High’s Orchestra Christmas concert. By sixteen, she was in her first rock band, “MROZ”, opening for the likes of celebrated Minneapolis band, The Suburbs.
She tried her hand at songwriting at the age of 15 and performed her first original song, “Wanting You” at her Winona Senior High School Homecoming Talent show. When the song finished, she was greeted with an enthusiastic standing ovation and the groundwork for her career was set in motion. Upon graduating she received a scholarship to The College of St. Teresa in Winona for music but soon left to join a Twin Cities based rock cover band, “Heartbreaker” and toured the Midwest, Canada and parts of the South for 2 years. “I had some wonderful professors at CST, one who was very encouraging, but my heart was in rock and roll and the only way I knew I was going to truly follow that path was to just get out there and do it!”
Following “Heartbreaker” she was recruited as a backing vocalist by regional Blues Band favorite “Lamont Cranston.” That experience she says, was “like going to school to learn how to be fearless.”
Soon after, in her early twenties she moved to London, England and quickly landed a gig as a backing singer for Pop Superstar Rick Astley, whose monster hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up” was on top of the charts. With Astley she played Royal Albert Hall in London, The Palladium in London for the Royal Variety Performance – performing for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and HRH Princess Margaret. Next came “Top of the Pops” on the BBC and a featured role in Astley’s Music Video “Take Me to Your Heart.” She toured briefly with Astley as well.
While in London she was selected to perform as a singer/dancer with Japanese Pop Band “TM Network” for their concert at The Tokyo Dome – or “The Big Egg” as it is known in Tokyo – for 54,000 fans. It was broadcast live on NHK TV in Japan. She also landed an acting role in a VHS Series for Yamaha Music called “Let’s Play Keyboard” alongside BBC Radio 1 DJ Pat Sharp.
Around that same time, she recorded her first original song demos and was signed to a Recording Development Deal with EMI records in London. Shortly after she headed back to the states and signed a Publishing Deal with Windswept Pacific Entertainment in Los Angeles, CA. Wynonna Judd quickly recorded her song, “Troubled Waters.” It was also featured in an episode of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless.”
In 1997, Instrumental icon, Yanni, pulled her aside at the Target Center in Minneapolis and expressed a desire to work with her. Thus began a collaboration that led to Pamela writing his first lyrical song, “Love is All.” It was a fixture on his “Tribute” album and has since earned RIAA double platinum status. The album went to #21 on the Billboard Top 200 and stayed for many weeks at #1 on the Billboard New Age Charts. “Love is All” was filmed in front of the Taj Mahal in India with the entire Yanni orchestra and featured the late Vann Johnson’s hauntingly powerful vocals. Pamela wrote 2 more songs with Yanni for 2003’s “Ethnicity” – “The Promise” and “Almost a Whisper.”
In 1999 a promotional spot for the Duluth United Way led to McNeill to writing and releasing her first solo album, “2 Sides to Every Sky.” It was heralded by the National United Way and McNeill and her band toured the country in support of it, including a performance at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the Mt. Baker Theater in Bellingham, WA. She donated 100% of the profits to the United Way for 3 years, raising over $100,000.
“It’s very humbling for this small-town Minnesota Girl to revisit the incredible journey I’ve been on. I’m blessed to have been able to live out so many of my dreams and see so much of this world making music. But in some ways I feel like I’m just getting started!”
Website: pamelamcneill.com
Facebook: @pamelamcneillmusic
Instagram: @pamelamcneillmusic
Twitter: @Pamela_McNeill
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