Chantel McGregor: “Shed Sessions Volume One” (2021) CD Review

The pandemic led many musicians to come up with different ways to reach their audiences, and even different ways to approach their craft. Many folks turned to performing online concerts, both to keep in touch with their fans and to keep themselves sane in an increasingly unfamiliar and uncertain world. Chantel McGregor began what would become a regular online show soon after things shut down, a series she called The Shed Sessions. That led to two albums recorded at her home, Shed Sessions Volume One and Shed Sessions Volume Two. Known mainly for performing blues rock, Chantel McGregor turns in a different direction with Shed Sessions Volume One, a solo acoustic album, each track just her voice and her guitar. Several artists who performed regular online concerts often turned to the work of others, adding lots of covers to their repertoire for those performances. Chantel McGregor covered a wide range of artists from Jewel to Metallica, and here she delivers an album of covers, including songs by Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac and James Taylor.

Chantel McGregor opens the album with a cover of Neil Young’s “The Needle And The Damage Done,” a song from his 1972 LP Harvest. Hers is a fairly faithful rendition. It is the first of two Neil Young songs included here. She follows that with “Morning Song,” a song from Jewel’s debut studio release, Pieces Of You. Chantel gives us such a pretty vocal performance. “And you can be Henry Miller and I’ll be Anais Nin/Except this time it’ll be even better/We’ll stay together in the end.” And “Come on, darling, let’s go back to bed” is a line many of us uttered often throughout the lockdown. She then turns more to the rock realm with “Sledgehammer.” I love a lot of Peter Gabriel’s work, but I have never cared for this song (perhaps that is due, in part, to that obnoxious music video getting so much play). That being said, I am enjoying Chantel’s rendition of it. This track is giving me an appreciation of the song that I never had before. Perhaps this is the sort of approach the song always needed.

Remember at the beginning of the pandemic when they warned us that as many as a hundred thousand or even two hundred thousand people might die in this country? And we were freaking out. Well, we’ve greatly surpassed that number, and now seem to have grown a bit frosty to it, though at this point most people must know someone who has gotten seriously ill, and many have lost loved ones. One of the hardest losses to process was that of John Prine. Even now, it’s still hard to believe. After his death, people understandably began covering his music on their live streams, with “Angel From Montgomery” being a favorite choice. Chantel McGregor delivers a beautiful rendition on this album. Interestingly, another artist who started a regular series of online performances during the pandemic, Ellis Paul, also released an album of covers bearing the name of the show and “Volume 1,” and that album also features this song. “Make me an angel/That flies from Montgomery/Make me a poster/Of an old rodeo/Just give me one thing/That I can hold on to/To believe in this livin’/Is just a hard way to go.”

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is a great album; it’s like a greatest hits compilation. From that record, Chantel McGregor chooses “Gold Dust Woman,” a song written by Stevie Nicks. It is the first of two Fleetwood Mac songs she covers on this release. That’s followed by “Fire And Rain.” I grew up listening to James Taylor. In Massachusetts in the 1970s, he was on the radio a lot. I remember thinking “Fire And Rain” sounded kind of sweet when I was a kid. Then as I got into my teens, I started really paying attention to the lyrics, and realized what a powerful and heartbreaking song it is. There is an ache to this song that Chantel McGregor gets just right. “Can’t Find My Way Home” is a song I return to periodically. For some reason I still don’t own a copy of that Blind Faith record, but the song comes to me somewhat regularly all the same, often by artists other than Blind Faith. And I love Chantel McGregor’s rendition, particularly her vocal work. She follows that with “Love Has No Pride,” a song written by Eric Kaz and Libby Titus, and recorded by Linda Ronstadt. Certain lines of songs strike us differently during the pandemic, don’t they? In this song, lines like “I’d give anything to see you again/I’ve been alone too many nights” stand out.

The second of the Neil Young numbers Chantel covers here is “Harvest Moon,” the title track to his 1992 album (on that album, Linda Ronstadt provides backing vocals for this song). And in the pandemic, the opening lines have a different connotation: “Come a little bit closer/Hear what I have to say.” What a crazy time, when we longed to be close to friends and family, and also felt a need to keep everyone else at a safe distance. I still don’t trust anyone I see without a mask. That song is followed by the second of the Fleetwood Mac songs, “Landslide,” this one from the band’s 1975 self-titled album, and also written by Stevie Nicks. It’s an absolutely beautiful song, and its beauty is not lessened one bit by how often it is played or by how many artists cover it. This song always works. Chantel McGregor’s version is honest and somewhat gentle, and moving. “I’m getting older too.”

Chantel McGregor then cuts loose on that acoustic guitar, delivering an energetic, raw rendition of “Voodoo Chile,” an exciting choice. This song is probably more in line with the kind of music she is known for, and is a song she has covered in concert. Maybe it feels a bit out of place here, but that’s all right. She follows that with a gorgeous rendition of “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” a song originally recorded by Bonnie Raitt. The album then concludes with another interesting choice, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” I haven’t listened to a lot of Metallica recordings, but have been turned onto several of their songs through acoustic renditions by other artists. Yonder Mountain String Band, for example, does a great version of “Fade To Black.” This track is quite good. Apparently, Chantel McGregor has performed it in concert several times. Again, it’s difficult to keep from thinking about the lyrics in relation to the pandemic: “So close, no matter how far/It couldn’t be much more from the heart/Forever trusting who we are/And nothing else matters.”

CD Track List

1. Needle And The Damage Done
2. Morning Song
3. Sledgehammer
4. Angel From Montgomery
5. Gold Dust Woman
6. Fire And Rain
7. Can’t Find My Way Home
8. Love Has No Pride
9. Harvest Moon
10. Landslide
11. Voodoo Chile
12. I Can’t Make You Love Me
13. Nothing Else Matters

Shed Sessions Volume One was released on July 13, 2021.