Reference Recordings New Doug MacLeod

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Doug MacLeod is a unique, powerful guitarist with a rich and soulful voice, singing original songs based on his own life and experiences. This is ‘Genuine Original Acoustic Music’ at its very best.

13 new MacLeod originals highlight this richly detailed recording by Grammy® winning engineer Keith Johnson, produced by Doug MacLeod and Janice Mancuso at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, CA.  The trio performances feature Doug’s longtime bassist Denny Croy and Jimi Bott, one of the most recorded, awarded and respected blues drummers in the world. 

Reference will release this new album on a 200-gram two-LP, 45 rpm set, half-speed mastered by Paul Stubblebine, pressed at Quality Record Pressings (QRP), in late spring. A high-resolution digital HRx disc, and high-resolution and conventional downloads will also be available.

“Making this album was different than any other one I’ve done in the past,” recalls MacLeod about the sessions. “They put Jimi, Denny and me on this huge soundstage at Skywalker Sound in Marin County and we sat around in a circle where we could see each other. We played live, no overdubs, just three guys playing some music together.”

“Simply put, Jimi and Denny are two of the finest musicians I have ever had the pleasure to make music with. I’ve been known to change arrangements on the spot: add a bar here, take away a bar there. I go with the feeling of the moment. Both Jimi and Denny have this uncanny ability to follow that – even under what could have been pressure circumstances for other musicians.”

A perennial Blues Music Award nominee, MacLeod is currently nominated for “Acoustic Artist of the Year.” Doug is a throwback musician in the great tradition of the traveling bluesman from the genre’s classic era, having apprenticed with some of the best as a sideman with such legends as Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Big Mama Thornton and George “Harmonica” Smith. During that time, he developed his unique, unorthodox and powerfully rhythmic acoustic guitar style, which he puts to great use on “There’s a Time” playing on a variety of guitars with such pet names as “Moon” (a National M-1 Tricone), “Little Bit” (a Gibson C-100 FE) and “Owl” (a National Style “O”), plus a National El Trovador 12-String.

The other element of Doug’s style is his remarkable ability as a storyteller, another trademark of the classic itinerant blues musician. Listening to the songs on “There’s a Time” is like attending a master class on storytelling, as MacLeod weaves tales that are visceral, insightful and often humorous (as on the songs, “My In-laws Are Outlaws,” “St Elmo’s Rooms and Pool” and “Dubb’s Talkin’ Religion Blues”).

Like the old masters who taught him, MacLeod’s songs are based primarily on his own life and experiences, instilled with the spirit one particular influential bluesman once told him: “Never play a note you don’t believe, and never write or sing about what you don’t know.”

“If you’re speaking honestly, then I believe you’re coming from your heart,” MacLeod says. “And if you’re coming from the heart, then I believe your chances of getting to another heart are real good. If you can get to the heart, then you can get to the soul, and I think that’s where songs like to live.”

In a career that spans over 30 years, Doug MacLeod has recorded 19 studio albums, several live records, compilations, a blues guitar instructional DVD and a live performance DVD. His songs have been covered by such artists as Albert King, Albert Collins, Joe Louis Walker and Eva Cassidy. Two of his songs were on Grammy-nominated albums by King and Collins. He’s co-written tunes with Dave Alvin and Coco Montoya, and his songs have been featured in many TV movies, as well as the hit TV series, “In the Heat of the Night.”

From 1999 to 2004, Doug hosted “Nothin’ but the Blues,” a very popular weekend blues radio show on Los Angeles’ KLON-KKJZ. He has also been the voice for “The Blues Showcase” on Continental Airlines and contributed his soulful slide guitar playing to the Los Angeles opening of the August Wilson play, “Gem of the Ocean.” For 10 years, he penned “Doug’s Back Porch,” a regular feature column in Blues Revue, in which he shared his humorous and insightful stories with the magazine’s readers. In 1997, he won the Golden Note Award for his Audioquest Music album, You Can’t Take My Blues; and in 2006 Solid Air/Warner Bros. released Doug’s guitar instructional DVD, 101 Blues Guitar Essentials.

Doug MacLeod will tour nationally and internationally in support of There’s a Time. Also available now on Reference Recordings through their Fresh! label imprint is Doug’s 2011 album, Brand New Eyes. For more information, visit www.doug-macleod.com.

About Reference Recordings

Reference Recordings produces award-winning, ultimate quality CDs, SACDs, 200-gram Reference Mastercuts LPs, and high-resolution HRx discs–176.4 kHz/24 bit music. RR was launched in 1976 by Grammy-nominated producer “Tam” Henderson, who continues to guide our artist and repertoire decisions. Our goal is to make your listening experience “The Best Seat in the House.” RR offers recordings are praised by critics worldwide and prized by audiophiles. They are recorded by Grammy-winning Chief Engineer and Technical Director ‘Prof.’ Keith O. Johnson, who’s designed and patented many innovative products in professional and consumer audio fields. Keith’s recording equipment is hand-built or extensively modified by him to recreate the sound of real musicians making music in real space.

Reference Recordings are distributed in the USA by Allegro Media Group, and internationally through a network of independent distributors listed at www.referencerecordings.com