“MCCONATHY’S UNMISTAKABLY BOLD VOCALS RING OUT TO A LANDSCAPE OF PURE AMERICANA… THE EFFECT IS OUTSTANDING.”
- LYNDON BOLTON, AMERICANA MUSIC SHOW
“NATURAL, LIKE THE SONGS WERE ALWAYS THERE”
“AN INTROSPECTIVE ON LIFE”
“CLEAN AND CLEAR… RARE”
- JASON LAW, FESTY GONUTS
“THERE'S A GRAVELLY SENSE OF FAMILIARITY TO ANDREW MCCONATHY'S VOICE… EVEN THROUGH A PAIR OF HEADPHONES, THE FRONTMAN AND PRINCIPAL SONGWRITER'S VOICE SOUNDS LIKE A PAIR OF WORN-IN JEANS FOR YOUR EARDRUMS — A SOUND THAT, AFTER YEARS OF PERFECTING, MCCONATHY HAS FINALLY NAILED DOWN… MCCONATHY HAS HIT HIS STRIDE.”
- ELLA COBB, DAILY CAMERA
“RECKLESS WAYS OF LIVING TAKES A LEFT TURN AND DIVES DEEP INTO COUNTRY MUSIC WITH ONE FOOT INSIDE THE DARK PSYCHEDELIC REALM.”
- JUSTIN PICARD, MUSICMARAUDERS
“IF ‘RECKLESS WAYS OF LIVING’ IS ABOUT REDEMPTION THEN ANDREW MCCONATHY SHOULD CONSIDER HIMSELF DULY REDEEMED. NOT THAT WHAT HE DID PREVIOUSLY WASN’T GOOD, IT CERTAINLY WAS, BUT THIS BROADER AMERICANA CANVASS GIVES HIS UNDOUBTED QUALITIES FAR GREATER SCOPE.”
- LYNDON BOLTON, AMERICANA MUSIC SHOW
Drunken Hearts:
Andrew McConathy - acoustic guitar / vocals
James Dumm - electric guitars / vocals
Drew Packard - bass / vocals
Tyler Adams - piano / organ / vocals
Eric Low - drums / percussion
RECKLESS WAYS OF LIVING
NOW AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE
While the 2020 pandemic spelled doom and gloom for many a musician, it signified a new beginning for Colorado based Americana Roots artist Andrew McConathy and his band, Drunken Hearts.The guitar-playing front man, lead singer and primary songwriter initially thought a worldwide calamity meant the beginning of the end to a career he’s pursued since 2010. Then an angel of mercy from his past emerged, giving him a second chance to make things right in his life and his songs. McConathy’s story of give and take, rise and fall, and hope lost and found gets the personal treatment on Reckless Ways of Living, Drunken Heart’s latest album released June 10, 2023.
“It’s been difficult to make this a career that actually pays the bills,” McConathy concedes. “Even before covid-19, I could have finally given up after dealing with several tragic experiences,” such as the 2014 death of Ted Welles, Drunken Hearts’ cofounding member and drummer. Yet, while his band lineup continued to change during the pandemic, McConathy worked as a security guard at a hemp farm in Longmont, Colorado to make ends meet while keeping his dream alive. “The odds have always been overwhelming,” he laughs. “I probably should have rolled over a long time ago.” instead, a renewed sense of faith in his abilities and songs followed. Finding another album within as the pandemic dust cleared, McConathy realized, “there is something cathartic about putting everything that you have into something.”
Drunken Hearts’ identity changed without Welles, morphing from a countrified trio into a quirky, harder-hitting quintet. They released studio albums in 2016 (Love & Thirst), 2018 (The Prize) and 2019 (Wheels of the City), and shared stages during those years with the likes of Mumford & Sons, BillyStrings, Greensky Bluegrass, The Revivalists, Stevie Wonder, and Mavis Staples, among many others.
Reckless Ways of Living is certainly a step in the right direction, with stirring songs like “The Bright,” another one he wrote “specifically about people in my life that I’ve lost.” it includes lyrics adapted from a sermon during his grandfather’s 2022 funeral in Shreveport, Louisiana, where McConathy was born. Remembering Milton Chapman as “a legendary physician and true hero,” he honors “one man destined to win” with the lovely track in a choir-like setting. While admitting he “wasn’t extremely close with Grandaddy” and “we didn’t really speak for a couple years at one point,” McConathy still found a way to pay his respects through song. That’s despite knowing his decision 20 years ago to leave college (if only temporarily) further damaged their fractured kinship. His voice dripping with emotion, “The Bright” opens with these lines:
When the light is dim / and death’s by my side
To walk among the angels / and sing with the choir
A brush of feathers / the flutter of wings
A touch of golden heaven / no pain, no sin
— “The Bright”
“Good Graces” is McConathy’s favorite Reckless Ways of Living track, but “The Bright” has hit closest to home for his mother who “cries every time she hears it now,” he divulges. Perhaps it’s fitting that there’s a tighter family connection in 2023. Along with a June album release following his April wedding, the bold, booming voice serving as the comeback king of Drunken Hearts can start singing about a new lease on life. After all, McConathy is finding peace, redemption, and resolution, firmly believing the once-tattered relationship with his grandfather is now blessed by that heroic healer walking among the angels.
- Michael Bialas / February 2023