Biography
After spending close to twenty years fronting an assortment of pop and roots-rock outfits throughout the Seattle region, Christy McWilson issued her first solo project, The Lucky One, in 2000. Her initial recording work occurred in the early eighties when she joined the Dynette Set, a trio styled as a girl-group pastiche; the group issued scattered singles and anthology cuts during the first half of the decade, among them the track “Seed of Love,” which appeared on Rhino’s 1984 new-wave collection devoted to female artists, The Girls Can’t Help It. Co-written and produced by Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, the song marked the beginning of a personal relationship that later led to marriage.
Once the Dynette Set dissolved, McWilson continued performing with a succession of short-lived Seattle combos and contributed backing vocals to several Young Fresh Fellows releases, most notably enhancing the college-radio favorite “Amy Grant” with her distinctive sass. In 1990 she co-founded the Picketts, a band that delivered three albums across the decade—Paper Doll, The Wicked Picketts, and Euphonium—before drifting apart more from inertia than animosity. Longtime admirer Dave Alvin then proposed producing McWilson’s debut solo effort, a collection of her own compositions, many of which addressed her ongoing experience with bipolar disorder, alongside a tender reading of Brian Wilson’s “’Til I Die.” The resulting album, The Lucky One, was tracked with a core rhythm section comprising Alvin, Peter Buck, and Rick Shea on guitars, Bob Glaub and Walter Singleman on bass, and Don Heffington on drums, plus guest contributions from Syd Straw, Rhett Miller of the Old 97s, and R.E.M.’s Mike Mills. Two years afterward she reassembled many of those same players for her follow-up, Bed of Roses.
Once the Dynette Set dissolved, McWilson continued performing with a succession of short-lived Seattle combos and contributed backing vocals to several Young Fresh Fellows releases, most notably enhancing the college-radio favorite “Amy Grant” with her distinctive sass. In 1990 she co-founded the Picketts, a band that delivered three albums across the decade—Paper Doll, The Wicked Picketts, and Euphonium—before drifting apart more from inertia than animosity. Longtime admirer Dave Alvin then proposed producing McWilson’s debut solo effort, a collection of her own compositions, many of which addressed her ongoing experience with bipolar disorder, alongside a tender reading of Brian Wilson’s “’Til I Die.” The resulting album, The Lucky One, was tracked with a core rhythm section comprising Alvin, Peter Buck, and Rick Shea on guitars, Bob Glaub and Walter Singleman on bass, and Don Heffington on drums, plus guest contributions from Syd Straw, Rhett Miller of the Old 97s, and R.E.M.’s Mike Mills. Two years afterward she reassembled many of those same players for her follow-up, Bed of Roses.
Albums