Don McNatt sets up residency most Tuesdays at Innerarity’s The Point

Don McNatt sets up residency most Tuesdays at Innerarity’s The Point
Son of Grand Ole Opry star ready to find place among local performing songwriters
By Fran Thompson
Although he and his wife Karen will have played gigs in Seattle and Nashville by spring’s last cold snap, Don McNatt is ready to find his musical space primarily here on the Gulf Coast. “We would be proud to be considered among local favorites, and have that as a goal,’’ McNatt said. “It’s not my first time to move into an area where talent is abundant, and I’m experienced at being the new guy. I’m confident that the dates will come.’’
McNatt (pictured), who brought 40 years of impressive credentials with him when he and Karen moved here from Tennessee last August, now has a residency at The Point Restaurant just up the street from his Innerarity Point home every Tuesday but the third from 6-9 p.m.
“It’s nice. I’ll still be able to leave town every now and then during the one week a month, but now we have a place where people know they can come see us. It should help us get more gigs,’’ McNatt said.
Like many now local songwriters, McNatt first came to the area to participate in the Frank Brown Songwriters Fest, where he and Karen have also served as the host for the fest’s weekday afternoon open mic sessions since 2013. “I used to go over during the day just to test out a few songs and it was never very crowded,’’ he said. “My wife and I took it on, and now it’s packed out every day. We even get some of the big dogs coming in, as we are the only game in town during the day.’’
McNatt’s dad Speedy was the Grand Ole Opry fiddler, and his family pictures include Don mounting Gene Autry’s horse at age five. Minnie Pearl was among his babysitters. Little Roy Wiggins, Gabe Tucker, and Eddy Arnold were regular guests in the McNatt home. But to Don and his brother Jim, these folks were just Dad and Mom’s friends, not music icons.
Speedy didn’t want Don to follow in his footsteps as a musician, but Don was already playing drums and guitar and had worked up an act as a ventriloquist by the time he was in junior high.
Also a young actor, he earned a grant to study at Front St. Theatre for a season, and that teenage experience affected him for the rest of his life.
A theatre major at Memphis State, Don was constantly performing on stage while also working in bands. Long before the movie, Memphis State produced the first theatrical production of Tommy. Don played Tommy’s father while also adding another guitar to the band when he was not on stage. He was in the first ever college production of “Hair.” And NBC’s documentary of the production, “When Hair Came to Memphis,” won an Emmy. Don was part of the “Hair’’ cast that played before 250,000 at the Atlanta Pop Festival.
After work as a touring musician behind an assortment of national rock, soul and R&B acts, Don ended up in Harvey Kay’s band, The Spiral Staircase, of “I love You More Today than Yesterday” fame for several years.
McNatt lived in San Francisco for about six years and often opened for an improvisational comedy group that included Robin Williams and Dana Carvy. He also worked in films, TV shows and commercials and had a part in “The Beverly Hillbillies” movie. In San Francisco, fans sometimes yelled out “Don McNatt – Simple as that,” and it stuck, evolving into a license plate spelling of SMPLZAT that came to be the name of Don’s production company.
McNatt said the rounds that songwriters often played in Nashville were against every rule of show business and staging, but they worked anyway because of the intimacy involved in seeing writers on stage, even when they are not playing. Although his production company initially shot “Writers in the Round with Don McNatt and Friends” for local cable in Los Angeles, the program ended up catching on in Nashville, Austin, Memphis, and up and down the California coast.
Don says there is a reason Nashville is sometimes called Nashville University by songwriters.
“For sheer numbers of extremely talented and skilled songwriters, there’s no place like Nashville. Writers have given up everything to move there from all over the world, and it’s recognized there as a legitimate profession. Songwriters could even buy homes there, and not have to hide their profession from lending institutions. It is also an environment where you can be exposed to the songwriting greats on a regular basis.’’
Don met Karen while he was playing at the Broken Spoke Songwriter’s Cafe in Nashville. He said since marrying a fellow songwriter, his own tunes have become decidedly more romantic over the last couple of years.
The McNatts have played in the United Kingdom, Berlin, Munich, Bavaria, Bermuda and Australia, where Don was recently awarded a People’s Choice Award at the Canberra Country Music Festival. In the USA, last year alone, the McNatts played in Texas, Florida, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Kentucky, Alaska, Hawaii and Tennessee. The term performing songwriters is an accurate description for the couple. They love to play live.
McNatt, who has also authored a book on performing called “Things I’ve Learned from the Audience,’’ says he has no plans of moving from Innerarity as long as he can make a living here.
“People around here have gotten used to songwriters on stage. They’ve heard good songwriters. So they know an original song doesn’t necessarily mean a bad song,’’ he said.
“We’re already seeing some of the same people showing up with their friends and they seem to like what we are trying to do.’’