Pat McLaughlin (left) and John Prine at the Grammys (Photo by Fiona Whelan Prine)

Like a magnolia along a winding river, singer-songwriter Pat McLaughlin has blossomed to become one of the most beloved music figures in Nashville, Tn. where he has lived since 1977.

He has released nine solo albums since 1988. He has five co-writes with John Prine on Prine’s breakthrough “The Tree of Forgiveness” record. Two of those songs, “Knockin’ on Your Screen Door” and “Summer’s End” were Grammy nominees for best American Roots Song.

McLaughlin played guitar on Johnny Cash’s final sessions at American Recording.  He was rhythm-guitarist-vocalist with the beloved Continental Drifters (Peter Holsapple, Vicki Peterson of the Bangles, Susan Cowsill of the Cowsills and others) and was a member of Tiny Town (with ex-Subdudes Tommy Malone and Johnny Ray Allen.)

He is a friend of mine.

And after you listen to his country-soul songs, he will be a friend of yours.

McLaughlin makes a rare Chicago area stop March 29 at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. He will be backed by his superb Nashville band consisting of Michael Rhodes (bass and alumni of Bob Dylan and Neil Young bands), Kenny Greenberg (guitar; Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift) and Greg Morrow (drums, recorded with Amy Grant and Billy Gibbons–but not together).

McLaughlin met Prine in the late 1970s when the native of Waterloo, Iowa was playing with his band at the tiny Springwater Supper Club & Lounge (the oldest bar serving alcohol in Tennessee) near the Parthenon in Nashville. Other singer-songwriters like David Olney and Townes Van Zandt found a home in the club’s funky vibe. Prine had dropped in with folk musician-producer Jim Rooney.

“I didn’t even know Prine had a Nashville connection,” McLaughlin said in a phone conversation last month. “Within the next couple months, I was at Jack Clement’s (Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis to begin with) studio and saw Prine and Rooney again. We didn’t write songs right off the bat. We did some carousing (laughs). We caroused. That was our common goal, I guess. It was a lot of fun.

“John did have an appreciation for my band and the kind of music we were playing. I’m sure I told him about his debut record and we sat down and played those songs. Being from the Midwest we had some stuff to talk about. I told him my family knew (Iowa born singer) Bonnie Koloc.

Although McLaughlin and Prine did not win a Grammy, the event was memorable. “I made a couple of records in L.A.,” McLaughlin said. “But I had never seen that concentration of entertainers—and what they looked like (laughs.)”

Dan Auerbach (left) and Pat McLaughlin.

Last year I caught up with McLaughlin when he was on the road with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys as a member of Auerbach’s “Easy Eye Sound Revue.” Auerbach was promoting his acclaimed “Waiting on a Song” record. McLaughlin wrote the title track with Auerbach. Some of this interview previously appeared in a profile on McLaughlin I wrote for The Iowan magazine.

Auerbach and McLaughlin have composed more than 200 songs together.

“In a way, I feel like I finally have enough songs to play a night,” McLaughlin said last month. “I know I’ve been doing it a long time but I’m feeling good about the songs I can play and feel good about.”

Ironically, Auerbach’s country-pop album title track is about the challenges of songwriting.

In a phone conversation from St. Paul, Mn., Auerbach explained, “Songwriting chemistry is something you don’t know. You can get two of the most seasoned, decorated songwriters in a room together and nothing will happen. Ever since ‘Maccy’ and I started writing, man, it’s been really fun and challenging. Just all the best stuff. When he and I got together we started something new. We left our old selves behind.”

And just in 2019 McLaughlin-Auerbach compositions appear on “Walk Through Fire,” the just-released debut album from British country-soul singer Yola., the Gibson Brothers bluegrass band and Alabama traditional country singer Dee White. They all record for Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label.

“I’m just fortunate to be in Auerbach’s camp,” McLaughlin said last month. “I got to write songs knowing they were going to be recorded. It’s a fun way to write because there’s an end game. There’s a lot of writing in Nashville which is dependent on relationships with a publisher, producer or a record label. It’s rare you get to write with the act.

“I’ve written with Josh Turner and Gary Allan. But over the past 30 years, I’ve done a lot of writing where songs just go into outer space. And that’s pretty common.”

Auerbach only knew of McLaughlin’s connection with Prine. “He knew nothing of Tiny Town, me playing in clubs, having records,” McLaughlin said. “He loves country music from the 1950s and gospel music from the ‘50s and 60s. I know a lot of old music. I don’t want to tell Dan’s story, but his deal is kind of like me.”

That’s the deal with McLaughlin.

He doesn’t want to get in your way. The rhythm and spaces in his compositions come from an honest soul. There’s no smoke and mirrors.

McLaughlin, 68, speaks in a humble country drawl and he’d rather talk about Iowa than his career.

McLaughlin’s father T.J. met his future wife Katherine Ward through the Catholic churches in Keokuk. They moved to Waterloo in the 1930s  to start the Waterloo Corrugated Box Company. The company sold boxes  to the thriving local meat packing industry and Waterloo Industries (the world’s largest manufacturer of tool boxes.) The McLaughlin firm later got into manufacturing boxes.

Pat and his dad, March 1967 (Courtesy of Pat and Sally McLaughlin)

By the age of 13,  McLaughlin could be seen riding his horse Brandy through downtown Waterloo. He attended  Waterloo West High School where he formed a band called The Fabulous Pawns that played everything from the Four Tops to the Zombies. “There was no better place to grow up than Waterloo,” he said. “We had the greatest family. You went somewhere in Waterloo, and you were a ‘McLaughlin.’  It was an amazing small town.”

He spoke of Waterloo in warm detail and deep emotion. Waterloo is a river that connects his heart with his mind. “We were town kids,” he said. “My Dad eventually bought an interest in a farm in Grundy County. We worked there in the summer, whether it was walking the beans or painting. We moved to the edge of town when I was about 12 or 13. I got a horse I kept across the street for like $15 a month. You couldn’t ride out in the country because it was serious farming. I could get to downtown Waterloo on a horse. I was unique. Not many people have enough time to ride horses.

“I left it (horseback riding) alone for about 40 years but I’m back into it. I do a lot of trail riding.”

In 1994 McLaughlin wrote the ballad “Highway of the Saints” for his 1994 “Unglued Album.” It is one of my favorite McLaughlin songs. The song was about traveling from St. Louis to St. Paul to visit his mother. McLaughlin still finds it very difficult to talk about the process.

His voice broke. “Sorry,” he said. “My mom was in the hospital in Waterloo.” He pauses then continued, “I lived in Nashville. I was driving back and forth. I’ve always written in the car. A lot of songwriters do.  She was dying. They were selling the farm. The song was about all that. That was one of my better songs.

“And it was true.”

The Continental Drifters also recorded “Highway of the Saints.” After  Hurricane Katrina, the band splintered. McLaughlin and his wife Sally took in Susan Cowsill and her husband/drummer Russ Broussard on their farm in Franklin, Tn., outside of Nashville. Cowsill’s older brother  Barry perished in Katrina. Neighborly Iowa values never left McLaughlin.

The Continental Drifters with Pat McLaughlin (far right) at the Warehouse, New Orleans, 1992. Pretty sure I was there.

McLaughlin left Waterloo in 1968 to study at Arizona State University. After a year he moved to San Francisco. “One thing I realized about Arizona is that if you didn’t do anything else you could sit in the car and drive all over the state,” he says. “And I did a lot of that. I always had a guitar. I got a few jobs in bars playing music. Just on this tour, I figured out how I’ve lived in Iowa, Phoenix, Kansas City, San Francisco, back to Phoenix, Boston,  and Nashville.”

Pat and Sally with kids Jamie (left) and Eliza. (Courtesy of the McLaughlin family.)

In more commercial terms, 2018 was the 30th anniversary of Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” and John Hiatt’s “Slow Turning.” But it was also the 30th anniversary of McLaughlin’s self-titled debut LP for  Capitol Records. The label recruited Mitchell Froom (Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson) to produce.

At the time Froom said McLaughlin had one of the best voices in America. Because of his tight grooves, sense of rhythm and love of soul music McLaughlin was going to be the next big thing. Several critics called him a heartland Van Morrison. McLaughlin liked to joke that his band’s tour bus was bigger than many of the clubs they were playing.

“For a guy getting his first major deal I was fairly mature as a musician and human being,” he reflected. “I was 38. It’s hard to prepare for something like that. It was an opportunity I didn’t envision. I knew all my friends wanted it to happen for them. I would have done a lot of things differently. I wish it had been more important to me. But I did what I did and that’s all right. Looking back, I’ve realized writing and performing was something I was comfortable doing, but the recording studio has not been my comfort zone.”

Pat McLaughlin single, 1988

About this same time McLaughlin and Prine finally began writing songs together. Some of their earliest co-writes were “Daddy’s Little Pumpkin” and the splendid ballad “Taking’ A Walk.” “He started taking me on the road and doing some opening up,” McLaughlin said. “Then I edged my way into the band.”

With the Grammy recognition, they obviously have hit their stride.

“My fingerpicking skills are similar to Prine’s,” McLaughlin explained. “He’s probably a better fingerpicker than I am. I’m always aware of what can be played and what can be performed when we’re writing, rather than screw around and try to get out on some musical adventure. I don’t want to mess up the lyrics too bad. His imagery has a warmth to it. I had a lot of ideas on ‘Summer’s End’ musically. I didn’t have them all but I did have a vibe. I felt it was a family song for both of us.”

McLaughlin keeps his ears as open as his heart. “Singing with my wife (Sally) and my daughter (Eliza) is a major part of my musical program as well,” he said. “I sang with my Dad, my brother. That’s what we did after dinner. I was a human jukebox. My Dad loved music but pursuing music as a means of making a living was not realistic for someone that era. But when I came along during the folk craze, he encouraged me to learn ‘Puff the Magic Dragon.’ He made me learn  ‘Gentle on My Mind’ so he and I could sing together.” McLaughlin’s wife Sally said, “Every time the McLaughlins get together there is a singalong. Every single time. Really special.”

Pat leading the family sing along (Courtesy of Pat and Sally McLaughlin).

McLaughlin is now at the top of his game.

He wrote the Trisha Yearwood hit “You Done Me Wrong,” the Tanya Tucker-Delbert McClinton duet “Tell Me About It,” and Bonnie Raitt’s “Two Lights in the Nighttime”, the latter written with Lee Clayton.

McLaughlin just got off a four-year touring stint as a mandolin player in Prine’s band. “I’m proud of the work with Dan, I’m proud of the work with John,” he said. “I’ve worked hard and it is fun at this time of my life to say I’m doing this. When you find that you’re working with someone you’ve admired (Prine), it’s kind of a wake-up call. Prine calls me a ‘Gollyologist.’ Like, ‘goll–ee’. (Laughs like Gomer Pyle). Humble?  Well, the Midwest is a phenomenal place.”

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