Lomita resident Doug Macleod is the headliner at the Los Angeles Guitar Festival this weekend at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. MacLeod is an old school blues musician. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

Like the blues artists of yesterday, Doug Macleod keeps on moving.

He's played festivals in Iowa and clubs in Colorado, performed in concert halls in London, led guitar workshops in Santa Monica. And that was just within the past month.

For years, the Lomita-based singer and songwriter has kept a calendar packed with tour dates. He spends months driving across the country and traveling abroad, serving as an unofficial ambassador of one of America's great cultural exports - the blues.

But on a recent Friday night, Macleod was settled on a stool in a corner of a barbecue joint in Long Beach, his fingers clutching a National black guitar in the hollow body tradition. On a television screen above, the Los Angeles

Lomita resident Doug Macleod is the headliner at the Los Angeles Guitar Festival this weekend at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. MacLeod talks about one of his treasured guitars made from a cigar box and other house hold items.

Dodgers played the Atlanta Braves. Few were paying much attention.

Instead, their eyes were on Macleod and his guitar, feet tapping to the bluesy rhythm as they laid into oversized portions of ribs and sipped pink lemonade from Mason jars.

"This is my reprieve," Macleod said with a deep laugh during a break between sets.

Born in New York City, Macleod, 66, was first introduced to music in New York and then later St. Louis, where he frequented rhythm and blues clubs as a teenager. Macleod found a connection to the artists he studied on stage, most of whom were facing social battles because of the color of their skin.

"When I heard the music, it spoke to me," said Macleod, whose parents are from Canada.

"Here were these people that were living life, enjoying life and they had a hell of a lot of problems. I thought `There's something to be learned here.' "I was really grateful that when I started to play, they welcomed me into their culture. That started everything up." Like the artists he saw on stage, Macleod faced his own struggles. He overcame a turbulent childhood, abuse and a crippling stutter, finding refuge in six strings and a microphone. He would develop a traditional

Lomita resident Doug Macleod is the headliner at the Los Angeles Guitar Festival this weekend at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. MacLeod poses with two of his favorite guitars slide-playing technique and a soulful singing voice. He went on to travel across the globe playing his take of Delta-inspired acoustic blues.

"I think blues is about overcoming," Macleod said during an interview at his Lomita home. "It's a music of hope. No matter what cards you have been dealt - either the cards you started out with in this life, or the cards you're holding now - if it's not a good hand, you can overcome."

Macleod will be on stage Saturday at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center during the second annual Los Angeles Guitar Festival. Starting at 8 Friday night and continuing at 7 p.m. Saturday, the festival also will feature Eric Johnson, John Jorgenson, country artist Albert Lee and Sicilian guitarist Peppino D'Agostino. Macleod is scheduled to perform Saturday night.

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Blues is about the journey' for Lomita musician

Macleod, who served a four-year stint in the Navy fixing radars, began his performance career at age 15 as a bassist, and would go on to share the stage with established blues artists such as George `Harmonica' Smith, Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton and Big Mama Thornton. He would spend much of his life studying their work. Those collaborations continue to influence his own music today, he said.

"Never play a note you don't believe," Macleod said, recalling advice he received from a blues man named Ernest Banks. "And never write or sing about what you don't know about."

In addition to recording albums and performing live, Macleod wrote a column for Blues Revue Magazine for 10 years and hosted "Nothin' but the Blues" from 1999 to 2004 on KKJZ-FM (88.1) in Long Beach. He often performed at bars in Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach.

These days when he isn't touring, he can be found playing on weekends with bassist Denny Croy at Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ in Long Beach. His most recent album, "Brand New Eyes," was released in September. He is planning on releasing a new album in March.

Some of Macleod's songs are about sorrow, others about joy. But nearly all are based on the blues man's life, with vibrant storytelling woven through each track, said Mitch Chang, promoter behind the Los Angeles Guitar Festival.

"Doug's music is all about lessons he has learned and wants to pass on to other people," Chang said. "His music is not just about heartbreak or the typical subject matter of the blues. It's a little life lesson."

Although the blues have served as a foundation for nearly every genre of contemporary American music and enjoyed steady popularity since vinyl recordings first surfaced in the late-1920s, the genre has had a commercial resurgence thanks to artists like Jack White, the Black Keys and, more recently, Gary Clark Jr.

And that popularity has trickled down to songwriters like Macleod, who said he draws inspiration from traditional blues artists Lightning Hopkins, Son House and B.B. King. Macleod said he has noticed the renewed popularity, with new generations of blues fans taking in his shows and approaching him after to talk and learn more about the distinctively American style of music.

"Blues is about speaking honestly, from your heart," Macleod said. "This is deceptively simple music. Because behind it, there's so much depth. It speaks to the emotions everybody has.

"Blues is about the journey."

douglas.morino@dailybreeze.com

Follow Douglas Morino on Twitter at http://twitter.com/douglasmorino

Want to go?

What: Los Angeles Guitar Festival

Where: Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd.

When: Begins at 8 tonight and continues at 7 p.m. Saturday

Information: www.laguitarfestival.com.

Tickets can be purchased at www.kalakoa.tix.com or at the box office at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center

Go back to » www.doug-macleod.com

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