Underdog Spotlight: Brian McSweeney

BIG VOICE, LITTLE FANFARE: I first heard Brian McSweeney's blue-eyed-soul-meets-rock-n-roll vocal when I picked up his former band Seven Day Jesus' first album, The Hunger. McSweeney served as frontman, guitarist and chief songwriter for the outfit. His powerful, dreamy voice won me over immediately. I saw SDJ in concert several times during its tenure. After the group disbanded, I learned that McSweeney had a new band, Matthew, when I happened upon the quartet's disc, Everybody Down, in a used CD store. Perhaps the most memorable of the performances that I witnessed, he played a little Nashville coffee shop on Sept. 12, 2003 -- the day that Johnny Cash died. It was intimate and raw and wonderful. It appears that McSweeney has since gone solo. Unfortunately, his MySpace doesn't have any tracks on it at the moment. When you have the opportunity, you would do well to check him out.