Re: Andy McKee - Joyland (2010)
Scat Laboy
McKee's third CD, Art of Motion, was released on Candyrat Records in November 2005. Most of McKee's YouTube performances appear on the album, along with a handful of tracks carried over from Dreamcatcher. During the early stages of McKee's success on YouTube in late 2006 and early 2007, Art of Motion was the only album of his carried by Candyrat Records, and saw the most mainstream exposure as a result.
After his popularity due to his performances on YouTube and touring throughout much of 2007, McKee returned to the studio to record his fourth CD, The Gates of Gnomeria. The album contained six new songs, four songs which had been previously released on McKee's Nocturne album, as well as two cover songs. McKee spent the majority of 2008 on tour throughout the world, performing with other Candyrat artists.
Self-described as "just this guy from Topeka, Kansas, who kind of blew up on the Internet about a week before Christmas", McKee became one of Candyrat Records' best-selling artists after their video of "Drifting" was promoted by users at Digg.[6] For a time, three of McKee's videos were concurrently the three most-watched on YouTube. In the wake of this exposure, he appeared by invitation on Woodsongs as well as Last Call with Carson Daly. He also contributed to Josh Groban's 2007 Grammy-nominated Christmas album, Noël, playing guitar on the song "Little Drummer Boy". Groban's album went on to become the best-selling CD of 2007 in the U.S.,[7] hitting #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200.[8]
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