Linda McRae

folk / roots from Nashville Tennessee

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About

Linda McRae

Instruments: Guitar, Vocals, Accordion, Composition/Songwriting, Bass & Clawhammer Banjo details

"Whether roots music is your cup of tea or not, this standout recording is a consciousness-raising journey through a challenging emotional landscape that also embraces hope and redemption."
Lesley Mitchell-Clarke - Current Reviews - Pot Pourri Shadow Trails by Linda McRae

California’s Folsom State Prison occupies a hallowed place in the history of country music. As the location of several Johnny Cash performances and the subject of his song “Folsom Prison Blues,” it has become a symbol of the “outlaw” element of outlaw country. Now, some 60 years after Cash first put it on the map, the California State Prison complex has had a transformational impact on another country roots musician: Canada’s Linda McRae.

After answering a call to host a song-writing workshop at New Folsom in 2011, McRae and her husband, James Whitmire, were moved to develop song-writing workshops for at-risk youth – to try and prevent them from ending up behind bars in the first place. Her new, Steve Dawson-produced album, Shadow Trails, is inspired by that work.

Though perhaps best-known for her eight-year tenure as a member of the platinum-selling band Spirit of the West, Linda McRae had already raised a daughter and performed for more than ten years with west coast punk and roots outfits before joining Spirit. In fact, the band members were regulars at shows by her previous roots rock band, Terminal City. She joined Spirit in 1988 and is heard prominently on two of its most famous and enduring songs, “Home for a Rest” and “If Venice is Sinking.” In 1995, she and the band performed and recorded with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and released the resulting recording, Open Heart Symphony.The following year, she left the Spirit to launch a solo career and has been charting at folk and roots radio ever since.

In 2006, McRae found love and much more with James Whitmire, a retired American rancher who had recently discovered his voice as a poet, and who put his skills to work trying to woo her. He told her he’d move wherever she dreamed of living, so the couple settled in Nashville, and Whitmire – who she pays tribute to on the album with the song “My Man” – became her manager, collaborator, and constant source of moral support while she’s out on the road. A recovered addict, who’s been clean for more than 25 years, Whitmire has life experience that many incarcerated individuals and at-risk youth relate to, and that has helped the couple build trusting connections through their therapeutic song-writing workshops.

That work, in turn, has inspired McRae, whose new album is chalk-full of raw, honest reflections on hardship delivered with a rough-hewn authenticity.

Here's a little about a few of the songs:

“Flowers of Appalachia” features a wistful, insightful poem by elderly New Folsom inmate Ken Blackburn set to a tender mostly-acoustic backdrop of banjo, guitars and bass.

“Sidewalk Princess,” inspired by another poem by a Folsom inmate, is the fictionalized account of a homeless woman in Vancouver.

And “Jesus or Jail” drew its inspiration from the film “Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus” and the message McRae took away from it: If you’re poor in the south, you have two choices: Jesus or jail.

Other stand-out tracks on the album include “Why Can’t Waylon?” a fabulous outlaw country-style song that borrows an even more fabulous outlaw country –style utterance from the young son of McRae’s friend: “If Jesus can come back, why can’t Waylon?”

There’s also a stirring cover of Willie P. Bennett’s never-recorded number “When Love is a Game,” featuring beautiful pedal steel by Dawson.

And then there’s “Singing River,” which tells the story of Teh-la-nay of the Yuchi nation. The nation called the Tennessee River the singing river because they believed a woman who lived in the river sang to them. When the nation was forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the 1830s, Teh-la-nay walked for five years to return because she missed hearing the river’s song. The ancestral home of the Yuchi nation lies across the river from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, home of the legendary Fame recording studio, and some say the stream of seminal recordings that came out of Muscle Shoals can be attributed to a certain something in the water.

Country/Bluegrass/Rockabilly

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Community Events

Lucent Festival 2025: Day One @ Star 6 Ranch - Aug 08, 2025

Menzies Music presents: 2025 Summer Concert Series @ Golden Skybridge - Aug 30, 2025

Past Events

Aug

2024

20:00 23:00

Linda McRae, David P. Smith and Janis McKenzie

Come see Linda McRae, David P. Smith, and Janis McKenzie perform live on August 17th at 8:00 PM!

$22.63

Aunty Collective

Apr

2018

14:30

Starfields Afternoon Concert / Keynote Address: Shane Claiborne, Linda McRae, De...

Starfields Festival presents jazz/pop group Decades After Paris [full band] with...

Free

Metro Studio

Apr

2018

19:00

Starfields Festival: The Paperboys, Linda McRae, The Small Glories - Vancouver

Saturday night MainStage event for Starfields with The Paperboys, The Small Glor...

$20

First Church of Christ, Scientist

Apr

2017

20:00

Linda McRae, GURF MORLIX

THURS APR 20 -2017 Linda McRae and Gurf Morlix WISE HALL - 7PM- MIDNIGHT $20...

$20-$25

WISE Hall

Feb

2017

04:00 05:20

Starman: Acoustic Bowie: Doug Cox, Helen Austin, Shaun Verreault, Sam Hurrie, Li...

When Doug Cox first conceptualized Starman:An Acoustic Evening of David Bowie So...

$25-$35

The Farquhar at UVic

Feb

2017

04:00 05:20

Starman: Acoustic Bowie: Doug Cox, RiCk MaY, Helen Austin, Shaun Verreault, Sam ...

When Doug Cox first conceptualized Starman:An Acoustic Evening of David Bowie So...

$25-$35

The Farquhar at UVic

Nov

2015

20:00

Linda McRae, Thad Beckman

Though perhaps best-known for her eight-year tenure as a member of the platinum-...

$20-$24

St. James Community Hall

Aug

2010

Linda McRae

WISE Hall

Jul

2009

20:30

Linda McRae, Petunia and the Vipers, And Guests

'When all the trends fade and become dated, and all the music from the cutting e...

Railway Club

Apr

2008

22:00 02:00

Linda McRae, HOWARD RIX & HIS LUCKY STARS, Headwater

Linda McRae featuring Nova Devonie and Stephen Nikleva with Special Guests: Head...

$8-$10

Railway Club

Apr

2007

22:30

Rodney DeCroo, Linda McRae, Scott McLeod

Railway Club

Oct

2006

21:30 01:00

Songwriters In The Round Hosted By Rodney DeCroo: Doug Andrew, Linda McRae, Jon ...

Railway Club

Jan

2005

Linda McRae, Circus In Flames

Railway Club

Jun

2004

Ronnie Hayward (featuring Steve Taylor and Steve Kozak), Linda McRae

Cafe Montmartre

May

2004

Linda McRae

The Marine Club

Aug

2003

Tom Holliston, Linda McRae

The Sugar Refinery

May

2003

02:00

Accordion Madness: David P. Smith, Linda McRae, Ana Bon Bon

Honky-tonk, hillbilly, rhythm'n'blues. These three solo artists offer their inte...

Logan's Pub

Dec

2002

02:00

Ranch Productions CD release: David P. Smith, Linda McRae, And More

Logan's Pub

Oct

2002

21:00

An Early Show With: Linda McRae

Tickets Available From ticketweb.com And At The Door

$10

Lucky Bar

Musician Photos

In photo: Linda McRae

Photo by: Roots Music Canada

Easy Money in front of Richards Records on Government Street Victoria BC 1980

In photo: Linda McRae

Current Projects

Daughters of Blood and Bone

songwriter/banjo/guitar/porchboard/accordion/vocals

2012 - present

Linda McRae

songwriter/banjo/guitar/porchboard/accordion/vocals

1997 - present

Past Projects

The Knotty Pines

bass/vocals

2005 - 2006

Linda McRae and Cheerful Lonesome

guitar/vocals

2003 - 2006

Spirit Of The West

bass/accordion/vocals

1989 - 1997

Bolero Lava

bass/vocals

1987

Terminal City

bass/vocals/songwriter

1984 - 1989

Squirrels In Bondage

Bass/Vocals

1981

Easy Money

bass/vocals

1978 - 1981

Musician Articles

Linda McRae – ‘Dimming of the Day’

Linda McRae has a special place in our hearts here at Roots Music Canada, and not just because she’s such a great person. Notwithstanding her busy schedule of touring, recording and teaching songwriting workshops, she also was one of the very first peop

Read Article

Author: Heather Kitching

Published by: Roots Music Canada