Wayne McRae is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist based in northern Portugal. He makes grown-up country music: traditional country and countrypolitan in the lineage of Jim Reeves, Don Williams, Eddy Arnold, and Ray Price.
He sings in a warm bass-baritone, favoring unhurried phrasing, clear melody, and arrangements that leave room for the words.
Wayne’s roots are in Kansas City. He grew up in Southern California, first in Los Angeles and then in Ventura County, and now lives with his family near Braga in northern Portugal. By the time he began preparing his own recordings, the old songs meant more to him than they had when he first heard them. Their subjects had become part of his own life: home, distance, marriage, memory, faith, and regret.
The repertoire he is preparing ranges from romantic ballads and country standards to story songs, shuffles, cowboy songs, and western swing. He is now arranging and rehearsing the songs for his first recordings, while continuing his work on voice, guitar, and lap steel.
