McCutchan’s show offers many musical styles

• By JOHN WIRT
• Music writer
• Published: Jul 10, 2009

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When the bearded Garrett McCutchan sings, plays his various instruments and dons period costumes, including his Renaissance hat, he seems a man from another age. Because McCutchan’s repertoire ranges from Elizabethan composer John Dowland to 20th-century folk-country musician John Hartford, the age could be anywhere from the Renaissance to today.

With such a musical pedigree, McCutchan is a natural for providing music for the likes of the Highland Games in Jackson, Foundation for Historical Louisiana events, Civil War re-enactments and the Baton Rouge Irish Club’s first Irish Film Festival. He can be heard most often Monday through Saturday at Circa 1857, the arts and antiques space on Government Street. He’s also appearing at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 12, at Whole Foods Market. 

It took McCutchan, a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, some 40 years to make his album debut. Friends, collaborators, audiences and peers such as singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe encouraged him to finally capture his music in CD form.

“I should have put a CD out years ago,” he said recently. “People’s reaction to my music brought some confidence into the picture.”

An instructor in LSU’s department of foreign languages and literature since 1984, McCutchan also keeps an active music schedule. Besides his regular engagements at Circa 1857, he performs with Two Guys and Ten Instruments (a duo featuring multi-instrumentalist Randy Walsh); and the Irish Roots Trio (featuring Walsh and Kate LaBorde).

McCutchan’s set list can easily include an Irish fiddle tune, Mason Williams’ classical guitar-based pop hit, “Classical Gas,” and such pathos-filled songs as Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” and Don McLean’s “Vincent.”

But his CD, Songs From There To Here, consists solely of original songs and instrumentals.   

“The CD project is the first time I’ve ever stepped out and said, ‘This is Garrett,’ ” he explained. “Because I thought of the lyrics, the tunes and the arrangements.”

In doing his CD, McCutchan purposefully set a mighty challenge for himself.

“I wanted to see what I could do by comparison to some of the best singer-songwriters,” he said. “I came up short, but there’s something for everybody.”

McCutchan also strived for originality. 

“Apart from the influences, which can be from all over, it’s awful difficult, as John Phillip Sousa once said about composing at the piano, to keep your fingers from falling into the places other people’s fingers have been.”

McCutchan’s music making began with classical violin instruction from his father, a band and orchestra director. After attending high school in upstate New York, he rebelled against his classical training by learning to play the five-string banjo.