Mac MacLeod

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keith MacLeod (known as Mac MacLeod) is a British musician. An important part of the Hertfordshire Folk and Blues scene from 1959 onwards. He played in St Albans along side Mick Softley, Maddy Prior and toured with John Renbourn. Influences include Softley, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Derroll Adams , Jesse Fuller, Big Bill Broonzy, Snooks Eaglin, Rev Gary Davis and Davey Graham. MacLeod was an early influence on Donovan and is well known as the bassist for the original line up of Hurdy Gurdy which also inspired the Donovan song Hurdy Gurdy Man. MacLeod has also worked with Argent. Other bands MacLeod formed of note include Soft Cloud, Loud Earth with Mick Softley and the acoustic based band Amber.

Contents 1 The St. Alban's Crowd and Beyond 2 Hurdy Gurdy 3 Sweden, Denmark and Back Again 4 Silverlining 5 Hi It's Been A Long Time

[edit] The St. Alban's Crowd and Beyond

In the early days in The Cock pub and The Pea Hen pub MacLeod was a regular and one of the few finger pickers around. He often played with other musicians of note :the two local flat pickers, Mick Softley and Art Student HiFi Hughie (A.K.A Dirty Hugh). Donovan was influenced from 1961 onwards by MacLeods finger picking and the flat pick styles made popular by Ramblin' Jack Elliott which had been a big influence on Mick Softley and HiFi Hughie. Indeed it appears Hughie taught Donovan to flat pick and MacLeod taught him to finger pick (see Hurdy Gurdy ).

Donovan said in an interview for Beat Instrumental in May 1965 titled 'Donovan's Big Influence? It's Not Dylan!' 'The man who encouraged and helped me most was a fellow called Keith 'Mac' MacLeod, I've known him for about three years, and he's taught me everything from chord progressions on the guitar, to how to appreciate folk and real blues’. MacLeod joined Donovan's first national tour of Britain which kicked off at the NME poll winners Party April 11th 1965, Donovan’s set has been called the first Folk-rock gig by music writer Richie Unterberger. One of the tour dates saw Donovan and MacLeod playing on stage with Joan Baez. After Donovan's first UK tour MacLeod teamed up first with Dana Gillespie then with another regular on the St. Alban's scene Maddy Prior to form Mac & Maddy.

[edit] Hurdy Gurdy

MacLeod is known for being the inspiration for the Donovan song Hurdy Gurdy Man. MacLeod was in a power trio style group in Denmark (inspired by Cream) he named Hurdy Gurdy. The group sound was heading in a similar direction to The Jimi Hendrix Experience who had also started at around the same time. After a run in with the law MacLeod had written to Donovan in December 1967 and asked him to pen them a song, Hurdy Gurdy Man was the result. Donovan changed his mind on the song and recorded it himself. Donovan explained the story to Keith Altham of Hit Parader in December 1968.

'Hurdy Gurdy Man,' was originally written for a Danish group by that name,' Don told me. 'There is a friend of mine in the group - Mac MacLeod — whom I looked to in the early days to learn how to pick the guitar. I wrote the song especially for them but then we got into a disagreement over how it was to be produced. I wanted to do it one way and they another. So I said, `Right then - I'll do it myself because I think it's good enough for a single. So I did it. And it's out. And doing very nicely, thank you.’

In addition to the above article Donovan also confirmed the history of the Hurdy Gurdy Man song to Melody Maker in July 1968 in an interview with Tony Wilson [1].

Donovan had originally wanted the song to be gentle and angelic, what Hurdy Gurdy played was more like Heavy Metal. In the end Donovan's recording was more in keeping with the arrangement of MacLeod's Hurdy Gurdy version.

Donovan had written the song before going to India with The Beatles, and handed a demo tape to MacLeod to work from. It was during Donovan's time in India he taught John Lennon and Paul McCartney the finger pick styles he had learned from MacLeod which resulted in songs like Julia and Blackbird on the White album (The Beatles) . [2].Donovan has also stated that whilst in India an extra verse was added to the song by George Harrison. MacLeod encountered problems with work permits for the Danish members of the group whilst in England so the other members went back to Denmark still under the name Hurdy Gurdy and recorded an album for CBS.

[edit] Sweden, Denmark and Back Again

MacLeod's Odyssey was to take him around Britain, and across Sweden and Denmark, where he first formed Hurdy Gurdy. The group became an underground favourite and went on to headline at Middle Earth, supporting Pink Floyd at the same venue. The anthology Mac MacLeod - The Incredible Musical Odyssey Of The Original Hurdy Gurdy Man on RPM /Cherry Red records contains many rare recordings, from the acoustic folksy beginnings through a succession of one-off groups like The Other Side (with Boz Scaggs) and Exploding Mushroom to the legendary Hurdy Gurdy (with producers Rod Argent and Chris White) and the post-The Zombies: Argent whose song Telescope was a lost classic until released on MacLeod's Anthology.

At the end of the 1960's MacLeod was reunited with Donovan who whisked him off, with a group of other old friends, to the Isle of Skye. MacLeod was asked to be a side man once more for Donovan’s U.S. tour. After several weeks of rehearsals all was well then Donovan had a change of heart and went to the U.S. alone.

He returned to St Albans and formed Soft Cloud-Loud Earth with Mick Softley, 'Candy' John Carr (who also went to Skye for Donovan's U.S. tour line up) and Mike Thomson. Due to the erratic behaviour of Softley, Carr and Thomson jumped ship and soon formed Open Road with Donovan leaving MacLeod to continue with Softley in the duo Soft Cloud. After Soft Cloud had evaporated MacLeod formed a new band, the sitar-drenched Amber with Julian McAllister and Ray Cooper. Amber had some tracks produced by former The Yardbirds singer Keith Relf.

[edit] Silverlining

After many years out of the music business MacLeod returned with a new band Silverlining in 1999. He continues to play live both solo and with a full band line up (some times including The Kinks and The Zombies bassist Jim Rodford) and he is making plans for a forthcoming album. He has also added flute to the new St. Albans band Maya on their new album Revelations and supplied some guitar for the band The Coming. Pete Frame author of Rock Family trees has also written a special edition of Zigzag Wanderer entitled 'Catching Dreams From the Clouds' all about MacLeod's early days.

[edit] Hi It's Been A Long Time

MacLeod has recently been in touch with his old friend Donovan, first when he co nominated him for his Honorary Doctorate at the University of Hertfordshire in November 2003.On Donovan's Birthday on the 10th of May 2005, MacLeod was a special guest and on the 9th of June Donovan and MacLeod played together again on stage at Oxford, the last time they played onstage together was during Donovan's first UK tour back in 1965. 2006 see's a new album in the works and a recent reunion with his old Amber partner in crime Julian McAllister . The meeting of minds has formed the basis for some of the new songs planned for the upcoming CD. More is yet to come from Mr. MacLeod.

Quotations

"A pivotal influence...” John Renbourn

"He was the best musician around... I was very honoured to play with him". Maddy Prior

"The best acoustic guitarist we had ever seen". Pete Frame ZigZag Wanderer No.5 March 1999

"Mac, of course, was an influence on Don." Gypsy Dave (AKA David Mills- Record Collector July 2004 issue 299)

A review of The Incredible Musical Odyssey Of The Original Hurdy Gurdy Man [3]

Official website www.macmacleod.co.uk [4]