A New Kind Of Country Comes To Town - May 2011

By: M. Michelle Spencer

    High school math teacher and up and coming country music performer: two ideas that you would not normally put in the same sentence and yet here they are. An even better use of these words is when they are used to describe the up and coming country sensation Chance McKinney.

    Chance McKinney is the lead singer for the group Chance McKinney n' Crosswire. This group has set the country world on fire with their style of music termed "industrial country", a blend of Country music with 90's Rock, 60's Motown and dash of Heavy Metal influences.   

    At 6'6" Chance McKinney can be said to, literally, tower over the heads of men, but this man's gracious and humble demeanor can attest to the true character that McKinney possess. A product of Lolo, MT (Bitterroot Valley) McKinney was not what many people would have initially considered someone who had it all. In fact McKinney jokes about his childhood years and how it was not that easy being the slower, heavier kid that was clumsy. It was that pudgy, clumsy, slow kid who ended up as a 3-Time National Champion javelin thrower in high school, an All-State basketball player and who graduated with a 4.0 GPA. From there, he went on to become a Division I All-American for Washington State University while graduating Summa Cum Laude in Mathematics. Chance worked hard at his "day job" as a high school math teacher in the Seattle area while at night he pursued his love music.

    Over the last 10 years Chance has had the opportunity to be involved in different genres of music which have allowed him to develop and hone his own personal style of singing. McKinney was discovered one night when he was singing karaoke. He was approached about being the bass singer for a Motown group. It was from this point on that McKinney was hooked. From being the bass singer of an all black (except McKinney) Motown group, to being a part of the duo Nathan Chase, to writing and recording his own songs, McKinney has a love for his music and worked hard for the opportunity to share it with others.

    The Nathan Chase duo gave McKinney some great exposure by allowing him to open for singers like Big n' Rich, Blaine Larson, SheDaisy, Martina McBride, Little Big Town, Toby Keith, Brooks n' Dunn, Kenny Loggins and Gary Alan. McKinney felt that his "lucky break" occurred when their duo was asked to open for Kenny Chesney's Flip Flop tour. This performance lead to the Nathan Chance duo becoming the house band for 94.1FM KMPS in Seattle, Washington.

    "I just feel that luck comes in the form of a lot of hard work," McKinney says, "then you get a break and some good things happen, but they don't happen without the work."

    Work was exactly what McKinney was willing to do to in order to achieve his goals. He took the time to study and practice and heard a myriad of "no's" but this only added fuel to the fire he had burning. It was this willingness to work and be dedicated, that has afforded McKinney all of the lucky breaks that he has had thus far and he has no intention of slowing down now.

    In 2009 Nathan Chance dissolved and McKinney received a phone call from a good friend of his who live in Nashville who urged him to submit some of the new songs he'd written to CMT's Music City Madness competition. So, in October 2009, just minutes before the deadline to enter had passed, McKinney uploaded the video to "Be Real." This was the first song that he had ever wrote and that was back in 2007. Due to creative differences, the song was never used because his former group was unable to make a unanimous agreement about it.

    "The first time we played Be Real publicly was at the SheDaisy concert. It was in the middle of a 40-minute set and the only slow song of the night for us. Folks at the amphitheatre gave it a standing ovation."

    As the CMT competition progressed, McKinney joined forces with his long time friend and drummer Brian Bujacich and they began to practice with the dynamic guitar duo of Paul Schille (lead guitar) and Ray Neyen (bass) forming the new group of "Chance McKinney n' CrossWire." During this time McKinney's song "Be Real" was blowing away the competition due a lot in part to the combined efforts of many of McKinney's current and former high school math students.

    "Chance was surprised to find out that the students of Kamiak High School, combined with former students and athletes from Skyline, Inglemoor, Woodinville, University of Washington and Washington State University had secretly formed a MASSIVE network throughout the U.S. Word spread like wildfire. Media outlets from Washington to Montana to Oregon to Utah (and beyond) were catching on to the story of the high school math teacher gone country singer." - Excerpt from Chance McKinney bio from www.chancemckinney.com

    When it was all said and done Chance McKinney had won CMT's Music City Madness competition search for the #1 "unsigned" artist in the nation with over a million votes in the final round alone. Needless to say, McKinney was thrilled and more than ready for this new adventure to begin in his life.

    The year 2010 brought many new venues and opportunities for Chance McKinney n' Crosswire to work for a few more "lucky" breaks. McKinney is thrilled with the prospect of being the main booking artist even if, for now, it is smaller venues because he realizes that this is a just one more stepping stone to success.

    When he was asked for his thoughts about performing for the Tabby Valley Parks and Rec Summer Kick-Off Concert, he had this to say, "Well, if they are anything like Lolo, MT where I am from, I know we are going to have a great time. The small town crowds are the best because they are so excited that we are there for them."

    And a great time is just what Chance McKinney n' Crosswire plan on giving to their audience when they perform on Friday June 17, 2011 at Tabby Valley Centennial Park. Plan on bringing the whole family and discover what kind of work goes into a "lucky break" when a new kind of country comes to town.