Pat McGee Band

Exercising caution, McGee and his Virginia-based bandmates John Small, bass; Jonathan Williams, vocals, piano, organ; Al Walsh, vocals, mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar; Chris Williams, drums; and Chardy McEwan, percussion recently assembled a team to take them to the next level.

In May 1999, the regionally successful rock group signed with Giant Records. About nine months ago, Rob Prinz at Artist Group International became its responsible agent. And after working with Bill Graham Management’s Jay Wilson for about seven months, the acoustic- tinged outfit officially made him manager in September.

“We chased the guy (McGee) for over a year,” Wilson told POLLSTAR. “It was all about the reputation of them touring. … If a band can tour and they don’t necessarily have to have a hit single on the radio, you know that you’re building something real.” The two forces met when BGM-managed group Train opened for PMB.

The latest player on board is Giant parent company Warner Bros. Its radio staff is working “Rebecca,” the band’s second single released in October, onto the proper formats, Wilson said. Shine was the group’s Giant debut; the outfit had two previous self-released CDs.

Getting airplay has been a long time coming for McGee, 27, who was a high school senior when he began playing acoustic sets with his brother in local bars. As a college student, McGee released his first disc. The next year, he formed PMB.

The lead vocalist/songwriter/guitarist grew the band to its breakout point managing, producing, routing tours and more. His business acumen was honed early, but was initially forced. “I’m not a confrontational person,” McGee told POLLSTAR. “I don’t like dealing with being paid or the whole aspect of settling a gig. So I’d always make my brother settle up shows.”

“My brother took off to Scotland, so I was left playing solo gigs and I was booking myself. From there, I figured out how much it would cost to record a CD, saved that money and recorded my first record,” he said. He ended up with 1,000 CDs.

“I put on a massive backpack and went door to door to every college kid on the campus,” McGee said. At $10 each, “I sold all of them in four days. I didn’t know that I couldn’t reorder and have them the next day, so I had four weeks with no records. That was my first lesson of reordering.”

With lessons well-learned, McGee took advantage of his home base and PMB spent 92 percent of its first four years gathering momentum on the East Coast, Wilson said. In 1997, it won two Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) awards in the rock/pop category best duo/group and recording. Since then, the band has played the West Coast with Sister Hazel, and shared bills with The Allman Brothers Band, The Who, Counting Crows, and others.

Last summer, the sextet’s big break came when it headlined the Wolf Trap Filene Center in Vienna, Va., selling out the 7,000 seater for the second time. “When we did it again, it was kind of like, ‘Oh, wow, this isn’t just a local band that’s got some fans,'” McGee said.

Its multiplying fan base may be attributed to PMB’s touring and onstage philosophy. “It needs to be fun,” the frontman said. “It’s not like we’re going out there trying to do a Jimmy Buffett show because that’s not what we’re about. But on the same aspect, we don’t stand there, hack away at our instruments and say, ‘Look how great we are.'”

“Our initial goal,” he said, “was always move into the thousand seater, then move into the House of Blues-type clubs and now, we’re at the crucial stage of our career where we need to decide how we’re gonna not become that band that cannot get past that.”

The proper fit is crucial, too, he said. “We don’t want to be labeled a jam band. People throw us in that category because we tour like a jam band, aka a hippy band, but we tour like that because of finances and growing our fan base. Then, you have the other label as, ‘Hey, you’re from Virginia; you’re the Dave Matthews Band.’ … I would say we’re a modern-day Eagles. I would say we’re like a modern-day classic rock band.”

However fans perceive PMB, the group’s schedule is full. This winter, it hits clubs and continues its Folger’s Cafe Latte college tour supporting “Rebecca,” performs Christmas shows with Barenaked Ladies and Shawn Mullins, and does a gig at NYC’s Irving Plaza. In February, it embarks on another 11 straight months of touring, McGee said.

“They go around the country seven times a year if that’s what it takes,” Prinz told POLLSTAR. “We believe that based on Pat’s track record and his ability to continue to grow his art, his fan base, keep touring on a very consistent level, the sky’s the limit.”

While PMB’s record for touring is heralded, its members are eager to try a new act balancing art and life.

“The biggest lesson we’ve learned is if you’re not going to do it yourself, it’s not going to be done right sometimes,” McGee, a self-described control freak, said. In nearly half a decade, the group’s lengthiest vacation was two weeks in July ’99. “We do need to take a breather. January, I’m determined, we must be off, even if we go belly-up.”