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BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – To many, country music is summed up to be an over-saturated genre that leans heavily on the patriotic ideology of cold beer, cowboys and backroads overdubbed with a Nashville guitar twang.
But for Bellingham’s own Brady McAtee, performing country music offers him the chance to honor the forefathers of the genre spanning back to the origins of the romanticized Hollywood West.
McAtee performs under the stage name “Buddy Mac” bringing his take on classic western music, performing on stages in Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties. His band, “The Ten-Gallon Troubadours” is an eclectic mix of local Bellingham musicians that provide the right amount of lap steel, rolling drums and guitar picking needed to pull off such a show.
Granted, the music McAtee performs is triple his age and finding his way to this music genre was a bit of a family affair.
McAtee found himself surrounded with a collection of around 10,000 bluegrass and country records after his great-grandfather passed away. This jumpstarted a new passion of western music that inevitably pushed him to perform.
McAtee noticed that a lot of these country singers from this period has simple names like Hank Williams Sr., Grandpa Jones, String Bean, etc. Naturally, he knew a simple name had to be used if he wanted to truly play the part.
“I just noticed that if you want to be a country musician back then, you need to have a name that is easy to pronounce for people and that is low on syllables and that sounds like country,” McAtee said. “My sister used to call me Buddy when we were both kids because she couldn’t say Brady. [McAtee] is too complicated, so its Mac.”
McAtee mentioned his love for the Hollywood West and how that has influenced his on-stage persona.
“I’m all hat, no cow is the expression that would be used to describe me,” McAtee said. “I never lived on a ranch, I never did any of that stuff. But I really like the kind of Wild West that John Ford invented with John Wayne.”
Aside from performing a catalogue of music, McAtee mixes in his skills as a ventriloquist at his shows.
Starting at nine-years-old, McAtee began ventriloquism on smaller stages. He gave it up for a few years until the COVID-19 pandemic where he rediscovered his interest in the performance art.
Now, he operates a custom order and repair space at the Bellingham Makerspace inside the Bellis Fair Mall. There, he takes customs orders to construct and repair dummys for other performers. His main sidekick is Cosmo these days, a replica of a classic figure by George and Glenn McElroy in the 1930s.
For more information about McAtee’s work, including his recent work as a filmmaker, head to his website at buddymacmusic.com.
We are Whatcom is a weekly column featuring Whatcom County residents making a positive impact on the community. To submit a Whatcom County resident to be featured, click here.