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Biography
BLP sources|date=August 2011Infobox musical artist|image = |image_size = 150|name = Rod MacDonald||caption = Rod MacDonald, Bull Run Concert Series, Shirley MA. June 7, 2008|image = RodMacDonaldBullRun.jpg|background = solo_singer|birth_name = Roderick Owen MacDonald|alias =|Born = August 17, 1948 Southington, Connecticut , United States |death_date =|origin = Greenwich Village , New York City |instrument = vocals , guitar , piano , harmonica |genre = Folk music|Folk , folk rock |occupation = singer , songwriter |years_active = 1973-current|label =|associated_acts = Cleopatra's Noodle, Big Brass Bed, Tracy Sands, Mark Dann, Fast Folk Magazine|website = http://www.rodmacdonald.net/ www.rodmacdonald.net|current_members =|past_members = Rod MacDonald (born August 17, 1948, Southington, Connecticut ) is an United States|American folk music|folk singer/songwriter .cite news|url= http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/nyregion/12ithaca.html|title=Ithaca Journal; 40 Years Later, Folk Music Keeps Its Nook on Campus|last=York|first=Michelle|date=12 September 2006|work=The New York Times|page=6|accessdate=13 August 2011 He was a "big part of the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich Village clubs,"cite news|url= http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rod-macdonald-p2057 | title=allmusic.com performing at the Speakeasy, The Bottom Line , Folk City , and the Songwriter's Exchange at the Cornelia Street Cafe for many years. He co-founded the Greenwich Village Folk Festival . He is perhaps best known for his songs "American Jerusalem", about the "contrast between the rich and the poor in Manhattan" ( Sing Out! ), "A Sailor's Prayer", "Coming of the Snow", "Every Living Thing", and "My Neighbors In Delray", a description of the 9/11 hijackers' last days in Delray Beach, FL, where MacDonald has lived since 1995. His songs have been covered by Dave Van Ronk , Shawn Colvin , Four Bitchin' Babes , Jonathan Edwards , Garnet Rogers , and others.
A self-proclaimed non-commercial artist, MacDonald has released 10 solo recordings on several record labels in the US, 8 in Europe on the Swiss label Brambus, and 21 songs with Smithsonian Folkways (through the Fast Folk Musical Magazine ). As with many independent artists, his recordings are often sold directly at concerts, with no definitive sales figures. He has appeared onstage with fellow artists, including Pete Seeger , Peter Yarrow , Odetta , Tom Paxton , the Violent Femmes , Suzanne Vega , Shawn Colvin , Dave Van Ronk , Emmylou Harris , Richie Havens , Ani DiFranco , Tom Chapin , Jack Hardy and David Massengill . He has performed at the Philadelphia, Winnipeg, Florida, South Florida, Riverhawk, Boston, Kerrville, Greenwich Village, Port Fairy (Australia) and Trowbridge (UK) festivals, and on the radio program Mountain Stage . He was reportedly the first American singer to tour the newly-liberated Czech Republic in 1991, and has made 35 tours in Europe since 1985, nearly all of them with NYC bassist Mark Dann.
A tenor with a clear voice and wide range, MacDonald is often cited for both his musicality and the content of his songs about political and social events: “Rod MacDonald is a brilliant folk singer and composer. His melodic songs possess words that go straight into your heart and soul.” The Press Of Atlantic City ....“A poet with a lot on his mind who has never allowed himself to make points at the expense of making music.” Boston Globe ....“True to the folk tradition, MacDonald is not afraid to get political, take chances, and perhaps shock some people....MacDonald's place in the folk hall of fame is assured by his 'A Sailor's Prayer,' a hymn-styled tune that many people have mistaken for a traditional song.” All-Music Guide . Although usually labeled a folk singer, his musical styles include rock, pop, country, light jazz, and blues. In addition to his work in Greenwich Village, he has written extensively of experiences on US Indian reservations and in Europe, living in Italy from 1989-1992. His 1985 recording "White Buffalo" is dedicated to Lakota Sioux ceremonial chief and healer Frank Fools Crow , whom he visited in 1981 and 1985, and who appears with MacDonald in the cover photograph.
MacDonald began his musical education as a slide trombonist at 11, switching to guitar in his mid-teens as he learned the popular 1960s folk songs. He attended the University of Virginia , where he was managing editor of the student newspaper The Cavalier Daily and toured statewide with the five-piece folk group The Lovin' Sound. Graduating in 1970 with a degree in history , he attended Columbia Law School and joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Navy . He worked summers as a reporter for the Hartford Courant in 1969 and Newsweek in Atlanta (1970) and Washington, DC (1971), for whom he covered the Pentagon Papers trial. In 1972, while at Officer's Training School in Newport, RI, he began working as a solo singer/guitarist at the waterfont bar, The Black Pearl, on a nightly basis. He was honorably discharged as a conscientious objector in August 1972. He graduated school in 1973 but did not take the bar exam, instead continuing his professional career in music.
After two decades in Greenwich Village, MacDonald moved to south Florida in 1995. Currently living in Delray Beach, FL with wife Nicole Hitz, of Chur, Switzerland, and daughters Ella and Alena, he remains active, touring in Florida, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Pacific NW, New York and New England in 2011. In May 2011 Brambus Records and Blue Flute Music released "Songs Of Freedom," a collection of 16 previously unreleased songs, in Switzerland and the US; Blue Flute also released Big Brass Bed's "Dylan Jam + 2", a new set of 9 Bob Dylan compositions and 2 originals. He appears locally as a guitarist/vocalist with the Bob Dylan cover band, Big Brass Bed, with Irish singer Tracy Sands, with songwriter George Goehring's show "My Life In The Brill Building," and solo. The Palm Beach Post has called him one of the "Ten Magnificent Musicians of Palm Beach County."The Ten Magnificent Musicians of Palm Beach County, Palm Beach Post, October 25, 2002, p. 32. Since 2006 he is also an instructor for the Florida Atlantic University ( Lifelong Learning Center ), hosting the lecture and performance series "Music Americana."
Discography
No Commercial Traffic (1983)
White Buffalo (1985)
Highway to Nowhere (1992)
Man on the Ledge (1994)
And Then He Woke Up (1996)
Into the Blue (1999)
Recognition (2002)
Big Brass Bed: A Few Dylan Songs (2003) (band album of Bob Dylan cover version|covers )
A Tale of Two Americas (2005)
After The War (2009)
Songs Of Freedom (2011)
Big Brass Bed: Dylan Jam + 2 (2011) (band album of 9 Bob Dylan cover version|covers plus 2 originals)
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.rodmacdonald.net/ Official web site
http://www.ljmccormackagency.com/ Artist Management & Publicity
Persondata | NAME = Macdonald, Rod | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = August 17, 1948 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Rod Category:American male singers Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:American folk musicians Category:Songwriters from Connecticut Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Fast Folk artists
