This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
If Beck had grown up obsessed with the British Invasion instead of Mississippi folk-blues, he’d have been Mayor McCA, a one-man band from Hamilton.
The Mayor — or, as his mom calls him, Christian Anderson Smith — has the same sort of screwball vision and whimsical approach to music as that Hansen boy. He just has a different record collection, as you can tell from his second CD Welcome To McCALand. Where the Beckster would drop a rap lyric or a blues line, Smith tosses in a wry Ray Davies quip or a Beatles-style harmony. But make no mistake: he can still get crazy with the Cheez Whiz and throw down a freaky blues shouter, an oddball folk ditty or a love song for Queen Victoria. But the piece de weirdness here is Barfly — A Tragedy In 1/2 An Act, a multi-voiced mini-musical about bugs in love. Say what you will about the Mayor, he’s definitely master of his domain.
