After the 35-year-old middle school art teacher in Broken Arrow, Okla., was handed a pink slip, he promptly grabbed his guitar and hit the road, effectively creating his own small business. But the musician's second act was hardly intentional.
"I never would have quit my job," McPherson admitted. "I have a family to provide for. I couldn't just say, 'Sorry, kids, I'm going to ditch my steady gig so I can play some rock 'n' roll shows," he laughed.
Not that the scenario was all that farfetched. After all, McPherson was in a band that had recorded an independent album.
"We worked extremely hard on the album and we played some gigs every once in a while, but that was the extent of it; I was a teacher. If I hadn't been let go, none of this would have happened."
Not the buzzworthy music career that carries McPherson to The Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach this Monday. Not the rave reviews for McPherson's retro-rooted sound that borrows from influences like Little Richard and Fats Domino as well as punk rock and hip-hop.
"I went through just about every subcultural phase there was," he said. "There's a picture of me wearing all black and a Cure T-shirt, but I still had a hillbilly mullet haircut, so clearly I was trying to figure things out."
One thing never in doubt was McPherson's passion for the arts. After studying film in college, he earned a master's degree in fine arts, which landed him his teaching position.
"The only thing I miss is the kids," McPherson said of his former occupation."You wouldn't think middle school teachers would be involved in cloak-and-dagger stuff, but they are. It was pretty political and cutthroat."
In 2010, McPherson released his debut album, "Signs & Signifiers." It was picked up and reissued by Rounder Records earlier this year. The record's old-school vibe was produced with vintage microphones, old tube amplifiers and an analog reel-to-reel tape recorder.
"Everybody was in the same room, playing together," McPherson noted. "That's almost a radical concept at this point, because it's not how it's done anymore. These days you put headphones on the drummer, give him a metronome, and he lays down a drum track. The next day the bass player records his part and then the guitarist comes in and plays. That's why you get this homogenized sound. There's no evidence of the hand in it at all."
That throwback attitude inspired many critics to describe McPherson in a way that once made him wince.
"The term 'retro' used to bother me," he said. "But I understand why people use it. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what word people use. If someone is excited by what we do, they can say whatever they want."
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