Features : NOLA musician Micah McKee pushes potential for beauty, love in ‘I’m Your Piano’

NEW ORLEANS, La. — Many homes in America probably have a piano in them that serves as a flat space for photos or knick knacks, but rarely gets played.

New Orleans singer song-writer Micah McKee see incredible potential in those pianos for beauty and sound, and he sees that piano as a metaphor for people and the potential beauty and love and creative gifts they carry within them.

“That happens with pianos,” McKee said. “They are these wonderful sources of sound and beauty but they often go unplayed and they often go unheard, but they have so much potential. That’s kind of the gist of it, just unloved potential.”

McKee and his group Lonsome Wilde expound and glorify that potential in their new single, “I’m Your Piano,” which was released on Tuesday, Nov. 1 on all streaming platforms.

McKee was born and raised in New Orleans, a town where if you have any musical talent, you are almost required by custom to become a musician.

“So music is often not about living for yourself, it’s living through other people and living other people’s experiences,” McKee said. “I grew up a musician, my dad was a musician, my granddad was a musician, and that’s kind of in my lineage.”

McKee said he started playing regular gigs and in weekly events such as song-writer nights and song shares.

“I started playing regular gigs in town and there is an amazing bar that COVID kind of killed, called the Circle Bar, and so may great acts moved through that bar,” McKee said. “So many great artists, folk and rock artists, moved through that bar, and that was my home bar for about 10 years. That’s kind of where I learned how to play, how to play with other folks. I did that and I’m also a wedding singer. I've been doing that for about 15 years. Music has just been this necessary part of my life for so long that when someone asks me how did I first get into music, I often reply, music just got into me.”

McKee gathered a group of singers around him who played with him at live shows and in the recording studio.

The live ensemble, Lonesome Wilde features Rory Callais, Sam Albright, and Benni Divine. On ‘I’m Your Piano, good friend and fellow musician Ainsley Matic played the piano while Myles Weeks played bass and C.M Rodriguez, a Tulsa-based musician and engineer, played drums and mixed and mastered the song.

McKee said he’s also a big Paul McCartney fan and “I’m Your Piano was partially inspired by a song McCartney wrote when he was with “Wings” called “Arrow Through Me.”

“I do want it to come off as a hopeful coping mechanism,” McKee said. “And I want it to feel like, hey, no matter whose love finds me, I will be ready and willing and waiting.”

Follow Micah McKee and Lonesome Wilde on the following social media and creative platforms:

Websites:
lonesomewilde
Youtube
Soundcloud
Spotify

Socials:
Instagram
Facebook