Steven McClintock (formerly of Fertitta & McClintock)

I want to tell you about a wonderful Thursday night show I just went to at the legendary Kulak's Woodshed in North Hollywood...
I was invited by some fairly new friends, Fertitta & McClintock, who I met when Gates & Goodell attended last Fall's FAR-West Folk Alliance conference in Vancouver....and I have to say that, some 31 hours later, the smile that act put on has yet to leave my face...
David Fertitta and Steven McClintock have a long and special history that you can read about on their site, but all the bios and press in the world can't describe the sound they produce. They are, both, accomplished and oft-published, award-winning songwriters with numerous cuts over the years, but all that fades when their show starts and every person within listening range simultaneously drops their jaw at the immaculate and stunning harmonies they sing. Their music is, simply, achingly beautiful and timeless. They are not loud, but the power of what they write and the way they sing it captured the audience and had the MC blustering superlatives after the show.

Review by Bill Goddell
May 29th 2008
- Bill Goddell

SONGWRITER’S… FOLLOW THEIR NOSE TO BREWS, TUNES AND THE NASHVILLE MUSE GUITAR-B-Q’S by KK Ryder
November 13th, 2008 by kkryder | Filed under Music, Music Reviews.
Hey Attention all songwriters and artists… weather you are dreaming about your very first big cut, have had cuts, hits, or even had big #1 parties thrown in your honor …I want to let you in on one of Nashville’s fun for the whole family, best kept secrets. It’s called a GUITARBQ! I know you’re probably thinking’ “a Guitar B what?” A GuitarBQ! This is where your very generous host Doak Turner owner of the Nashville Muse supplies 50 lbs. of really great Bar BQ meat and the entertainment is provided by YOU and folks just like you! The annual GuitarBQ which takes place in the Spring time usually has over 300 hungry individuals who are either songwriters, guitar players, people who like listening to guitar players, singers, people who like listening to singer’s and people who love a good old fashioned down home Back yard Bar BQ! This my friends… is where Folk’s come to enjoy, relax and socialize each month on the third Sunday at 3PM. Unless of course we are talking about the Mondo GuitarBQ which is only once a year and that.. is what I want to talk about right here and now! It’s a great big music party held at a house, no a party house no well kind of like Animal House only without the toga’s! (Doak your host probably wouldn’t mind if you wore one…he’s kewl like that!) The 4TH Annual GuitarBQ was a blast, it was held right after Tin Pan South on April 2nd 2006 at a rockin’ house in the West Meade Dist. Not too far from Nashville’s Music Row. Doak Turner the owner of Nashville Muse supplied 50 pounds of GuitarBQ, sponsored by Milos Sweet Tea who donated 200 bottles of their refreshing drink and everyone brought a dish to pass and some Folk’s brought “Brews n Tunes” It’s a Sunday party where folks get together and share music, live! A couple of very entertaining rounds included Larry Weiss singing his hit song, “Rhinestone Cowboy”, Gunner Nelson performing his dad’s big hit – “Garden Party”, Steven McClintock singing a Tiffany hit, “After All This Time” Marc-Alan Barnette “Too Much Blood in My Alcohol Level and Marc and I even performed a song that we co-wrote “That’s Still Me”, Other hit writers included Gary Hannan “Tequila Makes her Clothes Fall Off”, Joie Scott “Shoes“-Desperate Housewives soundtrack” artist Ray Scott “She Don’t Like My Kind of Music”. Gary Talley – guitar player for The Box Tops “The Letter” “Cry Like a Baby”, “Soul Deep”. Songwriter and host of the open mic at the Blue Bird Cafe Barbara Cloyd “Guess You Had to be There” Pat and Pete Luboff authors of the songwriting book “88 Songwriting Wrongs and How to Right Them and they also lead the Sounding Board Songwriting Think Tank in Nashville on Monday nights as well, Tirk Wilder “Theme from Walker Texas Ranger” Charlie Daniels Jr, Dan Harr from Music News Nashville and even Steven Stills daughter Jenn Stills were all in attendance. Songwriters from South Africa, England, Canada and all over the U.S.A. Everyone at the event just kicked back either inside or outside and had a good-ole time. The house is kind of like a maze almost every room in the house had some kind of rippin’ amazingly cool entertainment going on! The Mondo GuitarBQ is only held once a year…but you can still have fun throughout the year at Nashville Muse’s 3rd Sunday GuitarBQ’s which are held every 3rd Sunday of the Month! Check out www.nashvillemuse.com for more information and follow the link to see photos that my friend Kat took of all the happenings at this popular Sunday hot spot! Mark your calendars and you will soon be joining in on all the fun…and tote along your guitar a dish to pass and a song to share at Doak’s next Nashville Muse GuitarBQ!
www.nashvillemuse.com

review by KK Ryder

- Nashville Muse

LOVE SONGS Reviewed 10-30-07
Fertitta & McClintock
After All This Time
Fertitta & McClintock is the strongest pair of male vocalists to come down the musical road since “The Everly Brothers” and “Simon and Garfunkle”. I am not kidding and the proof is in the hearing. Pick a song any song from this CD give it a listen and you will come away thinking “WOW”. That’s my point, you are at a loss for words and you will be forced to listen to another song just so you believe your ears. Pure musical heartbreak and healing, movie soundtracks for some of the greatest love stories yet to be filmed. These songs could inspire a perfect romance that would last a lifetime. It doesn’t get any better than this.

I have my favorites but it would simple be a list of the entire CD. “Second Avenue”, so strong in it’s pure simplicity. In “Love is Blind”, I can hear the Everly Brothers once again but even better this time. For love songs you will not find another CD in this decade that comes close.

David Fertitta and Steven McClintock’s have very similar voices, yet different enough to provide subtle shading of colors from one song verse to the next. I don’t know and can’t tell who is singing each part of the various songs as I listen through each track on this 14 song CD but it is reminiscent of the first time I heard the Beatles thinking “Who are these guys?” Somehow I know this will not be the last time I listen to a Fertitta & McClintock’s brand new CD. I hope I don’t have to wait long for the next one.
MSP
- Cashbox

Fertitta and McClintock:
Timeless Music Is Always in Style

By PHIL SWEETLAND
Music+Radio contributor, The New York Times


NASHVILLE – There were several Pop/AC duos who lit up Radio in the 1970s: the most famous was Loggins & Messina, though others such as Brewer & Shipley, and England Dan & John Ford Coley also come to mind.

By all musical merits, Fertitta and McClintock should have been in that elite group. The breaks went against the duo then, but not now. Great music, like cream, always rises to the top, and thanks to a powerhouse reunion record called After All This Time and its breakout single “Second Avenue,” radio and fans will at long last get a chance to hear what they’ve been missing for decades: the magic of the duo’s high harmonies, the gorgeous melodies and arrangements, and timeless songs that cut through the nonsense which too often clutters today’s airwaves.

“It was a bit challenging at first dusting off the cobwebs, especially plunging head-on into resurrecting the album project that we abandoned nearly 30 years ago,” David Fertitta reports from Los Angeles, where the duo is based though the album was cut, mixed, and mastered in Nashville as well as Orange County, California.

“But as the project progressed, the magic of our sound slowly unfolded, and showed me that in many ways, we had gotten even richer with time,” David continues.

Back in the day, Fertitta and Steven McClintock worked with the legendary but often controversial label head Clive Davis after Clive had exited Columbia to found Arista, and was working with Eric Carmen and Barry Manilow. Over half of the songs on After All This Time come from that period. “Second Avenue,” written by Tim Moore, is also from the early 70s; Art Garfunkel cut it and took it to No. 34 on the Billboard Pop charts in 1974.

David and Steven hail from the steamy, oil-rich Gulf Coast port town of Beaumont, Texas. Both went to Forest Park High and started in music early. The duo moved to Houston, where they began playing shows at the Steak & Ale restaurants and then the prestigious Galleria Houston Oaks Hotel.

On stage at the Galleria night after night, the pair’s unique vocal and songwriting styles developed. By 1977, they had relocated to LA and signed a publishing deal with Island Music. Clive signed them to Arista for recording, and hooked Fertitta and McClintock up with the Canadian production team of Fred Mollin and Matthew McCauley, who had just cut Dan Hill’s smash “Sometimes When We Touch.”

But as the sessions for the duo’s debut album proceeded in late -70s LA, seismic shifts rocked what was becoming more and more the me-too, copycat record business. The group’s ballad style, label executives at Arista wrongly believed, was not happening in a period of polyester leisure suits, and when disco and punk were rearing their ugly heads at radio. The album was never finished, the duo lost their deal, and the guys went their own ways for 25 years.

Starting in the late 1970’s, Fertitta and McClintock began writing songs for other people. “Both of us had extensive cuts as songwriters with such artists as Juice Newton, Lorrie Morgan, Sixwire, Andy Williams, Tiffany, ATC, David Pomeranz, Victoria Shaw, Pat Boone, Diamond Rio, Paul Jefferson, Rose Maddox, and on dozens of foreign releases” said Steven.

Among their noteworthy cuts, it was exactly 20 years ago – late 1987 – that Steven mined multi-platinum with a trio of songs recorded by Tiffany, the first artist born in the 1970’s to have a No. 1 Billboard single, including her final Top 10 single, the No. 6 “All This Time.”

That was then, this is now. After All This Time is a remarkable work, with 14 Radio-friendly songs that bring back the innocence of the early 1970’s combined with a fresh, contemporary edge. “Steven and I had penned half of the songs back when the original Arista project with Clive Davis was in the making,” Fertitta says. As fate would have it, 30 years later the duo re-connected with their original producer, Fred Mollin who had produced the classic Jimmy Webb collection, “Ten Easy Pieces”. To even connect the dots more, Kyle Lehning, who produced the original 1970’s England Dan & John Ford Coley smashes including “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight” (No. 2, 1976) and the follow-up, “Nights Are Forever Without You”, masterfully mixed After All This Time.

So the circles of great music go round and round, and at last, the circle has landed squarely on the superb music of Fertitta and McClintock.
- Phil Sweetland writer for the New York Times

Fertitta & McClintock - After All This Time

by Chuck Dauphin

John Denver had a hit a years back with a song titled “Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone).” The same could be said of CD’s. One never knows what you might find in the mail each day. Some days…it might be trash…..Then some days, it just might be a little bit of treasure. This album falls into the latter, for sure. I will preface this by saying that it probably is a little too pop oriented to have a chance on Country Radio…but that doesn’t matter. It’s a very exquisite album, one that stands among the best releases I have heard all year….in any musical style or genre. The harmony between these two is so tight that it will brings to mind the Everly Brothers, particularly on “If Love Is Blind,” “Be There By Your Side,” and “Do You Run.”

There is not a clunker anywhere on this disc, as the duo’s strength seems to be with love songs like “All This Time,” “I Can’t Think Of Anything But You,” and the stunning “Closer To You.” There’s a 1970s feel to the dreamy sounding “Be Sure,” and “What Is It” sounds like it could have been a big love song for Kenny Rogers a few years back. If you’re looking for straight-ahead Country, look away for the most part, even though they do score with the haunting “I Wish You Knew,” written from a perspective of a man who sees the woman he loves with someone else, which is the most “Country” song here. It is a moot point, as David Fertitta and Steven McClintock have put together an album that from start to finish is a pleasure, and as a reviewer, I’m glad I got to hear this one!

Chuck’s Rating:
4 3/4 out of 5 guitars

- Chuck Daulphin/Nashville News

Fertitta and McClintock
After All This Time lp

There’s something effortless about the way David Fertitta and Steven McClintock manage to distil all the sunshine of their Long Beach base into dazzling UV-soaked harmonies and open-skied melodies. The duo have been singing together for over 30 years, but the 14 tracks on ‘After All this Time’ prove that they’ve lost none of their sparkle.

Broadly, the tunes here fall into two categories. “If Love Is Blind”, “Closer To You”, “Only Want To Be With You” and “I Can’t Think Of Anything But You” are just some of the tracks that glow with a sweet soulfulness. There are traces of Crosby Stills & Nash, The Eagles and even The Everly Brothers as the harmonies soar with sublime intent.

Many of the other songs, though, boast a far more urban sophistication. From the jazz-inflected “Be Sure” to the stately piano ballad of “Until I Fall In Love Again”, the sound is closer to the late ‘70s storytelling of Supertramp or Billy Joel. “Can’t Change Your Mind”, “All This Time” and “Second Avenue” also temper their soul with a smart dressed sensibility, but they still shine with a simple, affecting passion. Fertitta & McClintock have taken classic influences and made them sound nothing but fresh.
by overplay
Visit Fertitta and McClintock page






- Overplay Review

Southeast Texas duo returns home for folksy reunion at Logon C@fe
By ROBERT LOPEZ, The Enterprise
11/10/2006
Updated 11/09/2006 11:04:54 PM CST
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In 1980, Southeast Texans David Fertitta and Steven McClintock were on the verge of making it big.
The singing, songwriting duo from Beaumont counted Clive Davis, legendary founder of Arista Records as a fan and signed a five year deal with the label. Working with some of the hottest producers in Hollywood, they were preparing to cut a folk rock record. But then came a cruel lesson in the fickleness of the music industry.
"One of the things that happened at that the time was the music kind of changed," Fertitta said in a telephone interview. "New Wave was just coming into play and Blondie had just come out with 'Heart of Glass.' One of the things that Clive wanted us to do was write up-tempo stuff. We were kind of struggling to do that."
If you go
Who: Fertitta and McClintock.
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 18.
Where: The Logon C@fé, 3805 Calder Ave., Beaumont.
How much: $10.
Contact: Call (409) 832-1529.

Their songs sat on the shelf, and the two soon parted ways professionally.
The two reconnected about three years ago and will a have hometown reunion Nov. 18 to promote their new independent album, "After All This Time."
For most of the past 25 years, Fertitta stayed busy writing, most famously a number titled "I Can't Think of Anything But You," which appeared on a duet album by Sammy Kershaw and Lorrie Morgan. McClintock made a career penning commercial jingles and writing for artists like crooner Pat Boone and 1980s teeny-bopper Tiffany.
The two liken their own sound to that of Simon and Garfunkel, and Seals and Crofts.
The 51-year-old Fertitta grew up across the street from the rockers Edgar and Johnny Winter and as a student at Forest Park High School was in several bands. He knew the 53-year-old McClintock from a trio he was part of and after graduating the two played a regular gig at a Galleria hotel in Houston.
The duo stayed in touch over the years, but it wasn't until a friend's wedding that they seriously considered partnering up to give a recording career another shot.
"The beauty of this record is half of it is the material we wrote then (during their time with Arista), and half of it is new material," said McClintock in a telephone interview. "It's a perfect blend of the old and the new and the past and the present. Our sound tends to hit an emotional nerve. It's ballad heavy - a lot about relationships."
rlopez@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0790
Updated 11/09/2006 11:04:54 PM CST
©The Beaumont Enterprise 2006
- The Beaumont Enterprise

Almost 30 years in the making! They are back!

In the late-1970s, a new two-man acoustical sensation appeared on the folk rock radar in Southern California. With a unique sound that seemed to mesmerize audiences everywhere they played, the duo of Fertitta and McClintock seemed destined to make it to the top of the music scene.
Lionel Conway of Island Music recognized their talents in 1977 and quickly signed them to a publishing deal. Not long after they found themselves on the well-known Arista Records label recording for Clive Davis.
It was a dream-come-true for the diehard vocal duo. But the dream was abruptly interrupted when a new invasion of musical genre caught the eyes of record company moguls. Disco, new wave, and punk stole the limelight, and with it, Fertitta and McClintock’s vision of releasing their first record.
The duo separated, but they both went on to succeed with behind-the-scenes musical careers, writing songs for the TV and film industry. Hollywood hadn’t completely distracted them from their true passion though, and by the late 1990s, they both had written songs for such artists as Juice Newton, Andy Williams, Pat Boone, Tiffany, Lorrie Morgan, Sixwire, ATC, David Pomeranz, Victoria Shaw, Diamond Rio, Paul Jefferson, Rose Maddox and more.
As fate would have it, an old friend in Orange Country got married and asked the duo to sing together for the wedding. Once the music started, the past was forgotten and a new journey began. A few months later a chance meeting in Nashville between the two musicians and their former producer Fred Mollin (currently VP of Disney Records) who had produced such well-known acts as Dan Hill, America, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb, and Eddie Money turned into an offer to finish the Fertitta and McClintock album that had been silent so many years before.
We caught up with Orange County’s David Fertitta and Long Beach resident Steven McClintock at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna where they were performing to ask them a few questions.

You had your record mothballed for quite a long time, and then you were able to have it produced. How did this make you feel and how did it affect both you and David as a group? Steven: Well, it filled me full of pride. We knew we could make a great record but never got the chance. So in the middle of the recording in Nashville, it hit me just how COOL this was! That the SAME producer was co producing with us, that we were able to use half of the material we originally wrote for the project, and that David and I had gotten back together to make this happen. A dream come true for both of us. David: Yea… It gave Steven and I the chance to prove that whatever magic we had 30 years ago was still there and that in some ways we were even better, we had aged like a fine wine.


What, or to whom do you credit your initial interest in music and to the longevity of your career? Steven: I credit my interest in music to my father and mother….and the church. They and it gave me opportunity to sing and learn my craft. The longevity of my career is because I don’t quit! I never stop learning and trying to create. And because we still have people that will come and see us play and buy our records….so call it luck or fate….but I am just thankful to be able to still move it all forward and stay relevant. David: I didn't really come from a musical family like Steven. But for some reason I was always drawn to music and let's face it I grew up in the early 60's and 70's I remember seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, for godsakes, it doesn't get more exciting than that. That was a phenomenal time for music. The seed was planted then and has never stopped growing.


What exactly would you consider your genre of music? Steven: Acoustic/pop/folk…it has pieces from those genres…but not doesn’t fit into ONE BOX. David: Ditto!

There is a nickname you two go by, I saw it on one of your websites…Heckle and Jeckle? Steven: Ha …yea…the cartoon birds from the 50’s…our producer named us that and it stuck. If David says up…I say down. If I like it…he doesn’t. David: (Laughing) It really isn’t that bad…but we do pick at each other a bit…that is what a lifetime knowing someone will do. So…Heckle deserves whatever I give him..

What do you see for the future of Fertitta and McClintock? Steven: Continue to support this record touring, release our first single to radio next month, and see if we can make another record. David: I am hoping that Fertitta and Mcclintock will be the oldest duo to win the Best New Artists category at the grammy's next year. If that doesn't happen then I will stick with the plan of playing as much as possible to promote our CD and look forward to making the next record.


Can you tell me abit about your history? Steven: David and I grew up in Beaumont Texas, a pretty strong training ground for music, we have known each other since 9th grade. So when we moved out to Los Ang - Jim Larkin