Song(s) of the Week: McAlyster

"I Know How The River Feels"
and
"Looking Over My Shoulder"
McAlyster
from the single "I Know How The River Feels" (MCA, 2000)

MCA's Tony Brown and Bruce Hinton have signed a four-piece Florida band after hearing just one song on a demo tape. McAlyster, which came together two years ago in Pensacola, includes Josh Walther, Cody Collins, Leigh Usilton and Valerie Gillis. The band came to MCA's attention through Nashville music publisher Pat Finch. The actual demo recording, a cover of "I Know How the River Feels," will be released to radio this fall. The tune went to No. 32 on the Billboard country singles chart for Diamond Rio in 1999 and was included on Ty Herndon's 1997 disc Living in a Moment.

That 2000 news tidbit on the CMT website basically summarizes McAlyster's career. I can only assume that they were fully expecting to put out an album, but something obviously happened to derail that plan after their first single was released, and they were never heard from again, at least as a group.

That's right, folks -- these two songs represent the entire professional recording output of the teen country quartet known as McAlyster. I don't particularly care for country music, but I picked up this two-track single out of curiosity back when it was first released (and I bought Reba McEntire's "Duets" album this week, so "having country on the brain" probably has something to do with why I chose them as Song of the Week honorees). These songs, a pretty ballad and an upbeat fiddle-filled kicker, are pleasant enough, even for a country music detractor like me.

After about half an hour on Google, I was able to dig up the following: Cody Collins (I can only assume it's the same Cody Collins) has a MySpace page and is now recording country music as a solo artist; Leigh Usilton (there can't be very many of them out there) is pursuing higher education in New England; and there's a Josh Walther who's a performer at Dollywood (I've got a feeling that's him). Anyway, I just thought it would be a curious novelty, to post the only two songs that a group ever officially released. Enjoy!