The Green Note is as good a place as any you could find for a close-up experience of the finest in acoustic blues music, and Doug MacLeod is as good an acoustic blues artist as you could hope to find. He wowed a sell-out audience, all of whom had come for the sole reason of listening to him, and a very good time indeed was had by all. Unlike a great many artists in the genre, Doug MacLeod does all original material, and his songs cover a wide variety of themes.

There are fun songs, such as the self-explanatory I’m So Broke I Can’t Even Pay Attention, sad songs such as My Love’s Grown Cold, bawdy songs like Your Bread Ain’t Done and serious songs like Whose Truth? Whose Lies? Rather than sticking to familiar subject matter, Doug MacLeod writes material that wanders into the political and songs that present whole attitudes to life.

He’s a superb guitarist too, with a style all of his own, and his in-the-zone rendition of My Love’s Grown Cold showed his wonderful slide work at its finest, holding a spellbound audience’s attention as only the best artists do. His voice is also completely non-standard-issue, no gruff impersonations of what a bluesman ‘should’ sound like, but a higher register thing that soars and swoops. Add to this his considerable skills as a between-songs raconteur and you have one of those evenings that make people who witnessed them feel just that bit better about things for a while. Doug MacLeod’s message is essentially an optimistic one, as shown for example by the feel-good Coming Your Brand New Day, and new song (and title track of the forthcoming new CD) Brand New Eyes. The optimism, however, is balanced in the repertoire by acknowledgement of the less desirable aspects of life and people, and there’s a depth to what he does. At the end, as the audience filed slowly out, Doug MacLeod was like the vicar at the end of a particularly funky service, receiving the appreciative words of people who felt they’d just been part of something a bit special. They were right.

Mark Harrison - Blues Matters  /  Photos : Rogier Van Diesfeldt