When touring in the U.S., Rod usually performs solo, accompanying himself with acoustic guitar and lively, fast-paced harmonica.
When touring in Europe, Rod has frequently traveled with his band, "Rod MacDonald and The Hitchikers" and more recently, with drummer Renzo Nocent of Italy's "Mr. Tambourine Band".
"Big Brass Bed", with Rod on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica, 4-piece folk, rock and blues south Florida band, expertly performs mostly Bob Dylan songs and some of Rod's originals.
"Cleopatra's Noodle", with Rod on lead vocals and guitar, high energy 3-piece string band performs traditional and contemporary folk songs and some of Rod's original compositions.
"My Life In The Brill Building" includes Rod with George Goehring, and other south Florida artists, performing songs by George Goehring and other 1950s and 1960s-era songwriters, including George's own hit compositions "Lipstick On Your Collar", "Half Heaven Half Heartache", and numerous other top ten songs.
Collaborators
Mark Dann (Mark Dann Recordings)
Ron Litchauer (Acoustic Music Productions)
Glenn Erwin
Steve Eriksson
Renzo Nocent
Fred Pohlman
JP Bowersock
Pete Levin
Gary Burke
Early Dylan, Paul Simon for innovative music and perceptive lyrics, Dave Van Ronk, Ray Charles for soulfulness and emotion, Phil Ochs
Sounds Like
Been described as having a 'Roy Orbisonish' voice, but I'd rather you listen and decide ...
After The War - 2009 NEW RELEASE!
A Tale of Two Americas - 2005
Recognition - 2003
No Commercial Traffic - Re-released 2002
Into The Blue - 1999
White Buffalo - 1983 & 2000
Highway To Nowhere - 1992
If you wish to contact me about a performance, a workshop, publicity materials, press releases or anything related to my work, please e-mail laurie@ljmccormackagency.com or call (770) 607-8189.
Please don't be offended if I am unable to personally respond to your message or comments! I'm touring most of the year in the U.S. and Europe, and when I'm at home I'm performing locally, in a recording studio, conducting a workshop, or presenting a lecture series at Florida Atlantic University. And of course, I want to spend time with my family.
My management team helps me to keep up with the activity at MySpace, and I try to personally answer as many messages as I can. I wish I could respond to everyone! I hope you enjoy my music, and I'd be pleased to have a chance to play for you someday. You can sign up for my mailing list at rodmacdonald.net and I'll send you a postcard to let you know when I'm going to be performing in your state or region. Also, please ask around about me among people who attend folk singer/songwriter concerts, festivals, house concerts, workshops, etc.
"As has been the hallmark of his writing career, Rod MacDonald pulls no punches regarding public and private life in current times." -- Folkwax
Throughout a 35-year performing career, Rod MacDonald has been entertaining audiences worldwide with his timeless ballads, modern folk songs, and his musical versatility. Possessing the heart of a troubadour, the soul of a poet and the voice of a virtuoso, he is as distinctive an entertainer as he is a songwriter. Known for his passionate interest in the events that shape our world's societies, Rod is a prolific and poignant communicator who is regarded as "one of the most politically and socially aware lyricists of our time." (All Music Guide).
Rod has released 9 solo albums, and has performed at many of the world's finest clubs and major international festivals in the U.S., Europe and Canada. The first American folksinger to tour the liberated Czech Republic, Rod performed frequently at the 3-4 day Straznice Festival for audiences of 10,000, where he debuted his passionate anthem "For The People", a tribute to the newly freed Czechs. He summered with the Oglala Sioux Indians on their South Dakota reservation where he met Frank Fool's Crow, ceremonial chief and medicine healer and to whom he dedicated his 2nd album, "White Buffalo" featuring the song of the same name. Said Rod, "he is a great inspiration to me, and to everyone who knows him."
Among the more than two dozen artists who have recorded his works are Dave Van Ronk, Four Bitchin' Babes with Christine Lavin, Happy Traum and Garnet Rogers. Rod's albums "No Commercial Traffic" (re-released in 2002) and "White Buffalo" are regarded as "one of the towering achievements in modern folk music." (Boson Herald).
Born and raised in a small Connecticut town, Rod was educated at the University of Virginia and Columbia Law School. Drawn to music since childhood and artistically ambitious by nature, it was not unexpected that during his final year at Columbia, and having done a stint as a correspondent for Newsweek Magazine, he put aside all thoughts of a legal career and instead dedicated himself solely to music. Already performing since his early college days, he graduated from Columbia, never took the bar exam and remained in New York.
Rod became a major part of the 80s Greenwich Village folk renaissance, and appeared onstage with notables like Pete Seeger, Tom Chapin, Dave Van Ronk, Suzanne Vega, Doc Watson, John Gorka, and Emmylou Harris. Rod frequently headlined at New York's Speakeasy and Folk City clubs, and his uforgettable performance at The Bottom Line of what became his signature song, his "American Jerusalem", was heralded by fans and media alike as a "defining moment in folk music history".
In 2002, Smithsonian Folkways recognized Rod's considerable contribution to folk music by including more than 20 of his songs in their Fast Folk Musical Magazine, honoring him as one of the most heavily represented artists in the series. "MacDonald's place in the folk Hall of Fame is assured by his 'A Sailor's Prayer,' a hymn-styled tune that many people mistook for a traditional song" writes Richard Skelly of All Music Guide. The lead-off track on Smithsonian's anniversary CD featured Rod's enduring classic, "American Jerusalem", "a brilliant contrast of rich and poor, of the powerful and the powerless in Manhattan." (Mike Regenstreif-Sing Out! * Summer 2003).
Throughout his career Rod has remained a vital force in the modern folk music community. His unique eclectic brand of music transcends the typical folk genre and is infused with a reverence for life and concern for humanity, evident in lyrics that are infectious and inspiring, sometimes reckless, often evocative - and always compelling. The Boston Folk Festival wrote "Rod MacDonald is an original Greenwich Village icon-a pivotal folk singer who uses his background in law and journalism to ask the important questions of our time."
In his trademark balladeer style, Rod artfully weaves together a tapestry of journalistically insightful lyrics and poetic imagery offering up to listeners entertaining, thought-provoking honesty - and often humorously satirical commentaries on a variety of topics that invite and inspire his listeners to come to their own conclusions. Although among Rod's works are a number of captivating love songs, when his satire is turned towards politics and current events, he is at his wittiest.
Calling south Florida home since the mid-90s, Rod maintains an aggressive touring, recording and teaching schedule. As distinctive an entertainer as he is a songwriter, he continues adding to an already powerful body of works with songs that document our times and "hit all the right emotional notes", says Michael Stock of Miami's WLRN. "MacDonald approaches the genre differently from most contemporary singer-songwriters. His 'protest' songs are narratives that invite you to draw your own conclusions ... takes listeners on previously untrod paths in his unique stories." (Rich Warren-Sing Out!)
- I Will Always Think Of The Village As
My First Real Adult Home -
"I spent 20 years in Greenwich Village. It provided so much of what I wanted - a seriousness about the music, a living tradition of songwriting excellence and a wealth of brilliant people to interact with and learn from...The clubs gave me a place to develop my own style and writing, and the collective enterprises we formed brought us a higher level of recognition than was available to most of us who weren't playing disco, punk or whatever else the commercial music business was peddling. Though I feel I also have grown as an artist tremendously since moving south, I will always think of The Village as my first real adult home." (From "MacDonald fits right in at Dylan Festival"-Interview with Bob Price, New Jersey Herald)
"Although he has stayed out of the commercial mainstream ... he's considered by many to be one of the preeminent folk musicians of his time, rivaling the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen ..... something in his physical demeanor and in the way he talks about his music and the folk scene, belies the commercial pomp and circumstance ... performance powerful, hypnotic." (Scott Rupp-Brandon News/Tampa Tribune).
"A Tale of Two Americas", Rod's 2007 release by Wind River Records in the U.S., and Brambus Records in Europe, "provides Rod's perspective on current political and world events, along with putting to words the thoughts and feelings emanating from everyday life." Says Kevin McCarthy of Celtic Folk Music, "MacDonald has proven again here that he is a master at musically portraying the difficult issues facing this country and the world. It's also abundantly clear that MacDonald didn't head to Florida to retire. In fact, he appears to have discovered the fountain of youth. Lucky for us."
In 2003, Rod's 911 tribute, "My Neighbors In Delray", (Recognition) was selected as a Folk Category finalist in the USA Songwriting Competition. In contrast to many other 911 songs written, "Neighbors" is more of a questioning, reflective commentary, an observation of the 911 terrorists' adaptation to Florida's casual lifestyle, their easy integration into the culture, and how they unobtrusively mapped out their terrorist activities while residing only blocks away from Rod's home.
Rod also enjoys teaching "Songwriting for Self Expression", his self-styled 6-week workshop for both experienced and inexperienced songwriters, has twice been an instructor for Common Ground on the Hill, a two-week workshop sponsored by McDaniel College in Westminster, MD., and has conducted songwriting workshops at the New York Open Center in NYC.
Rod has just released his newest U.S. CD, "After The War", featuring the song of the same name (Fred Pohlman, copyrighted 1980 Blue Flute Music) (ASCAP), and "This One", Europe's version, was released in October 2008 by Brambus Records Produced by JP Bowersock, this cd brings together a top-flight band and demonstrates Rod's powerful vocals and range as a singer. While not categorically a greatest hits cd, "After The War" shows the expansiveness of Rod's career that has brought him to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia, and also to a rich personal life in Greenwich Village, Italy, the Czech Republic, US Native American reservations, and since 1995, south Florida, where he and his wife reside with their two young children.
"A fraction of the songs that exist in the public domain possess much more than a fleeting immediacy. MacDonald has for decades crafted in word and melody, living and breathing entities that bear repeated hearing", writes Arthur Wood in FolkWax. After three and a half decades soldiering in the trenches of folk music, Rod MacDonald has emerged with what well may be the cd of his career ... and yet, there is undoubtedly still much more to come.
Recorded at Broward PAC by Robert Rutherford
Following previous 8-week lecture series including "Folksinging In Modern Times", "Folksinging In Modern Times II", "Milestones In American Music: A Personal Journey", and "Music Americana-The Roots of Rock & Roll", which he taught at Florida Atlantic University, Rod has continued to teach at several FAU campuses through their Lifelong Learning Program.
"He's a restless traveler, seeker and communicator of the truth ... and an obedient servant of his music. What more is there ?" (Arthur Wood, Acoustic Live April 2002)
Of himself and his music, Rod says ...."something to touch your heart .. something to awaken your spirit .. something to tickle your funny bone .. something to make you a little more conscious of your role in life. All of this sounds very serious, but it's really what I feel my job is."
Once upon a time there was silence. In a very far-off time, when peace didn't know war because life didn't know man. In the time when the vast ocean drowned the red sun, the wind composed a Te Deum on its piano in the universe. And God said to the wind: "Of all my senses, you are the one who resembles me most closely. Look at me so I can see myself! So to thank God, the wind became music. From that time tunes became mirrors, where God sees himself and gives his joy.
Thanks for finding me and inviting me to be friends with Rod, who I have known since the days I used to ride up from Delaware to the open mikes at the Speak Easy in Greenwich Village. I used to be an assistant editor at Broadside magazine for Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen. They had me do an article on the 400 pages of FBI files they got on Phil Ochs thru FOIA after he died. I consider myself in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs. Check out my topical songs and videos here, at least the video of Ballad of William Rodriguez. Vic Sadot (pronounced as Sa-doe)
Hi Rod, It was wonderful to see you at the Broward Center. It is ALWAYS a pleasure to hear you-- you are one of the most gifted songwriters I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I absolutely love your ability to tell a story, your wit, your very clever hooks, your smooth vocals, your take on current events & politics, and your understated charm. You are a true artist, my friend!
Just before you struck your first chord, I turned to my friend and said "I hope he kicks off the night with 'While you were outside having a smoke'." Low and behold... you began with "Smoke." Always a crowd pleaser! "American Jerusalem" was beautiful. And the "Disclaimer" song is AWESOME! Simply brilliant!! Is that one recorded yet? I want it!!
I was thrilled to hear that Ella has a sister. Don't know how I could have gone a year and a half without knowing that! Congratulations on your continued success not only as a gifted musician but also as a loving and wonderful father. Be well. Much love! ~ judy b.
Thank you my beloved brother for an incredible experience of music and sharing last evening at the Browrd Center for The Performing Arts. You are a true gift to the universe and I thank you for being who you are.
Saying hello, and I come bearing gifts... well, *a* gift. But a pretty cool one, I hope: a free download. :)
There is a link on my page in the "About Me" section for a free MP3 download of "Shot Down In Cold Blood. Hope you will download (it would really help me a lot, and be much appreciated) and enjoy the tune.
By the way, please check my page from time-to-time as I am almost ready to start uploading the Joanna Collins' final mixes. I believe they are way cool, and would love some feedback on those tunes.
Hi Rod, Thank you so much for the friendship. I was on your page and reading and listening to your music. It has been great fun working on my album and working with Jay Leslie has been just incredible. Bless you in all you do. I hope your Easter was wonderful. Sending a warm ...=_=...MaryAnn
Rod, Jazz Stream was honored to play First Night with you on the next block (dubious distinction being your neighbor in Delray). Was fun to hear you playing Puff The Magic Dragon . . . recently learned of the infamous rendition in the news this week: Barack The Magic Negro. Wonders will never cease. May 2009 be full of them. Healthiest.
Rod, After the War is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. The lyrics, melody, and piano arrangement are so moving. Hits me so hard I have to choke back tears. Thanks for the inspiration!
hi Rod, thanks for finding me and making friends. I heard you way back in the early 80's.. maybe at Philly folk fest or possibly it was Clearwater Revival. Blew me away. thanks for doing what you do. :) alice
Beautiful work on WLRN yesterday. My ears are still ringing in freedom. You might lead a US State Dept. Folk Ambassador program if one existed . . . imagine folk artists touring US Embassies with songs of freedom . . . like the Jazz Ambassador program, but with words!