Rod MacDonald

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."

Arthur Wood-Folkwax

Since first stepping on a Newport, Rhode Island stage in 1972, Rod MacDonald has taken many interesting journeys where he has met many interesting people; many of whom eventually show up in one of his songs. He has performed in Italy, Western and Southern Australia, Sweden, England, Canada, Switzerland, and Pellworm, a remote island west of Germany, British Columbia and Alaska. He was the first American folksinger to tour the Czech Republic where he debuted for an audience of 10,000 at the Straznice Festival, his "For The People"; a hauntingly uplifting tribute to a peoples' undying love for their country, recorded on his "Man On The Ledge" cd.

A troubador at heart who loves performing best of all, he has performed at several international festivals, spent a summer with the Hopi Indians on their South Dakota reservation, and lived for a time in Italy. He has recorded 9 cds of his original compositions, and has the honor of having 21 of his songs included in the Smithsonian Folkways recordings of re-mastered music from the Fast Folk Magazine.

Below is an unedited reprint of an article written for Sing Out! about "a man who has chosen to make his own way, to fullfill his own destiny, and to include you in his journeys."

Rod MacDonald: Digging Deep
By Mike Regenstreif
Sing Out! - Summer 2003

Singer-songwriter Rod MacDonald spent two decades living on MacDougal Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, within walking distance of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. "That was one of my favorite places," he told me last fall, not long after the first anniversary of 9/11. "I used to go there sometimes, late at night, to sit on the plaza and watch the moon drift over the sky." Since 1996, though, Rod has been living in Delray Beach, Florida, ironically the same town where 14 of the 19 hijackers lived prior to the tragic events.

It was in the late-1970s, when I'd pass through New York a couple of times a year, that I met Rod and first heard him perform his songs at clubs like Folk City and at the Songwriter's Exchange in the tiny Cornelia Street Cafe'. Then as now, I was taken with Rod's expressive tenor, with his versatility on the guitar, alternately melodic and beautiful on love songs like "The Coming of the Snow," or infectiously rhythmic on anthems like "Song of My brothers." In particular, though, I was taken by his finely crafted songs and by his obvious dedication to the craft of songwriting. I've been a fan of Rod's work ever since.

Just prior to the anniversary of 9/11, I heard "My Neighbors in Delray," Rod's insightful attempt to understand what motivated the hijackers. I thought it would be an opportune time to catch up with him, to talk about that song, some others, his life as a singer-songwriter, and the interesting twists and turns of life that brought him to where he is today.

"I grew up out in the country, in central Connecticut, near a little New England mill town called Southington. We lived outside of town and had a little bit of land. I played a lot of baseball, lived outdoors a lot in the summertime, my mom and dad were regular folks." Rod's mother collected jazz records and encouraged her kids' interest in music. His first instrument was the trombone, and he took lessons for three years and played in his junior high school orchestra. "I also had a Roy Rogers kid guitar and I used to stand in my room and play along with the radio." By the age of 16, the guitar had taken over. "I was playing for hours a day, reading song charts, learning records." It was in high school that Rod wrote his first songs. "I wrote poetry and had a few poems published in school literary magazines. When I got to the point that I could put together chord progressions, I started putting my poems to music."

Rod went to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and occasionally performed at the Prism, an off-campus coffee house that's still going strong. In his last year at Virginia, Rod joined The Lovin' Sound, a five piece folk group that toured the state playing for church youth groups. "We did what we considered uplifting folk songs ... things like 'Turn, Turn, Turn.' They hired me as a guitarist and I ended up being one of the two lead singers."

Rod graduated from Virginia and spent the summer of 1970 in Atlanta working as a reporter for Newsweek Magazine. In the fall, though, he was off to New York City and Columbia Law School, performing occasionally at law school functions and private parties, and at a couple of the coffee houses around town.

It was also during that time that Rod served in the Naval Reserve as a JAG trainee. "In the summer of '72, they called me up and sent me to Newport for 11 weeks of officer training. While I was in Newport, I stumbled into a bar on the waterfront called The Black Pearl on the very day that the guy who was playing there had to leave town under dubious circumstances. The manager hired me on the spot, and I ended up playing there three nights a week for the entire summer." During that summer, Rod went through a serious reevaluation of his life and career direction. "I ended up filing for a discharge as a conscientious objector. I went back to New York and finished law school, but I pretty much knew right then that I was going to play music professionally. I never spent a day practicing law in my life. I just went off, got a part-time job to pay the rent and started playing all the clubs in New York."

After a year or so of playing around New York City, Rod went out to the Midwest and based himself in Chicago for a couple of years. "There was a very good scene going on in Chicago in the mid-1970s. I played a lot at places like the Earl of Old Town, the Kingston Mines, Somebody Else's Troubles, and the No Exit." In Chicago, Rod fell in with a group of like-minded singer-songwriters including Harry Waller, Mike Jordan, Al Day, Nick Scott, Sally Fingerett and Mike Lever. "That was my first experience in being part of a 'Young Turk' songwriting faction. We'd go to see each other's gigs and gangtackle the stage." Then we'd go out for burritos and stay up all night talking and playing music. We spent a lot of time workshopping songs. It was a good little thing for a while."

In 1976, Rod headed back to New York for an audition with John Hammond, the legendary record producer who had signed singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to their first recording contracts. Although a contract with Hammond did not ultimately materialize, Rod became a major part of the renaissance of the Greenwich Village folk scene that included other young songwriters like Jack Hardy, David Massengill and Frank Christian. "Tom Intondi started inviting me to his house for singer-songwriter get-togethers. Pretty soon, we were all hanging out."

"In the spring of 1976, there was a regular Monday night songwriters get-together in a neighborhood bar in the Village. That was when we really started hanging out and getting to know each other. As a songwriter, it was good to know that I wasn't alone, that there were like minded musicians."

Those singer-songwriter get-togethers played a crucial role, not only for Rod, but also for those other New York-based singer-songwriters. As they bounced ideas off each other and critiqued each other's new songs, they were creating a creative community who would continue to influence each other's music.

Those initial Monday night sessions in the bar only lasted a few months. In December 1977, they picked up again, and the Songwriter's Exchange became a regular event at the Cornelia Street Cafe' for many years. In 1980, Stash Records released Cornelia Street: The Songwriter's Exchange, an LP that included Rod's recording debut, as well as debuts for David Massengill, Lucy Kaplansky, Tom Intondi, Michael Fracasso and Cliff Eberhardt.

During the mid-late '70s, Rod's main performing gig in New York was at Folk City, the legendary Greenwich Village club run by Mike Porco. "Folk City would hire guys like me for a week at a time, seven or eight times a year. With that much work, I could hire a band and work out the dynamics of my songs." Rod sees that period, when he played with pianist Bernie Shanahan, bassist Mark Dann and drummer Jeff Berman, as very important to his musical development.

After Folk City changed hands in 1980, much of the Village folk scene shifted to a new club that Angela Page started at the Speakeasy, a MacDougal Street falafel restaurant. After a few months, the Speakeasy coffeehouse became a musician's cooperative and, in addition to performing there frequently, Rod became one of the club's bookers.

With the musician's cooperative at the Speakeasy, and the ongoing Monday night songwriter's exchange, the Greenwich Village folk scene of that era was an exciting place to be. Artists like Rod, Jack Hardy, Steve Forbert, Suzanne Vega, the Roches and many others were interacting, learning from, and influencing each other. Another exciting development to come out of the scene was Fast Folk Musical Magazine, a combination magazine and album that spotlighted the Village songwriters and their songs. Over the decade of Fast Folk's ongoing publication, Rod contributed more than 15 songs to the "audio magazine." In 2002, Smithsonian Folkways released a deluxe 2-CD collection of some of the best Fast Folk recordings and the leadoff track was Rod's "American Jerusalem," a brilliant contrast of rich and poor, of the powerful and the powerless in Manhattan.

It was also around that time, in 1981, that Rod spent some time at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona." "As a history buff, the Hopi fascinated me. I think they have a lot more knowledge of man's history then we realize. I wanted to go out there, to meet the people, to see the place where they are. Songs that I wrote like 'The Unearthly Fire' and 'Dear Grandfather' were very influenced by my experiences with the Hopi."

Rod included those songs on his first album, No Commercial Traffic, recorded in 1983. Another of Rod's songs on that album was "A Sailor's Prayer," a gem that has occasionally been mistaken for a traditional folk song. "I was in Chicago and I'd been out to hear a rock 'n' roll band. I went back to where I was staying and wrote the words down before I went to sleep. I woke up in the morning and saw them there. I've written quite a few songs that way. As I began to sing it, it began to take shape."

When he wrote "A Sailor's Prayer," Rod had not had any sailing experience. "Sometimes you just hear things, and if you're actively challenging yourself to be a writer, to live a writer's life, then you write those things down." Although it was written outside of Rod's personal experience, the song has, indeed, become a modern day folk classic and was recorded by the legendary Dave Van Ronk and hardcore traditionalists Bok, Muir and Trickett among others.

Throughout the 1980s and the first half of the '90s, Rod maintained a hectic schedule that included songwriting, an increasingly busy touring schedule, the recording of several very well-received albums that were brimming with songs dealing with personal, spiritual and political issues.

One of Rod's most fascinating songs was "Norman," on Highway to Nowhere, which he sings from the perspective of Alfred Hitchcock's Norman Bates in Psycho. In the quiet, poetic song, Norman tries to explain to "his mother" what happened to the pretty woman in the shower. The gentle arrangement, featuring counterpoint from a sweetly played oboe, brilliantly belies the violence of the situation. A theme that Rod has returned to in several songs including "Honorable Men," from The Man on the Ledge and "Stop the War" from White Buffalo. The latter deals with the nature of America's military-industrial complex. As the Bush Administration wages war in Iraq, those songs seem ever more relevant.

In 1995, Rod's life took a sudden change of direction. "I packed up and moved to Florida. My mom was having some medical problems and my dad was getting on in years. They needed some help and I just felt that it was a good thing to do." His father has since passed away, but Rod remains in close contact with his mom, interacting with her almost daily. He met and married his wife Nicole while in Florida, too. "Family things were always way off in the distance when I was living in New York City. There's a lot of family things now."

As a songwriter, Rod has continued to turn out a formidable body of work that includes a number of challenging, questioning topical songs. Among them, "Who Built the Bomb (That Blew Oklahoma City Down?)" from hs 1997 album And Then He Woke Up and "My Neighbors in Delray," from the newly released Recognition, stand out.

"What I wanted to do with 'Who Built the Bomb' was to capture a moment in time, a moment in history. I was thinking that whoever did it - we didn't know that it was Timothy McVeigh when Iwrote the song - believed they were doing something good and, as horrifying a prospect as that is, I think then you have to ask yourself why would they think that. The voices that I'm quoting in the song are the people that kind of created that psychic environment: the preachers and the radio commentators who were saying this government must be destroyed. Of course, they thought they were speaking metaphorically, but here's this guy who took them literally. I don't buy the theory that the guy who did that, or for that matter, the guys who bombed the World Trade Center were insane, crazy or demented. I think that they acted very rationally within their own way of thinking, that they thought what they were doing was the right thing. To me, the biggest mistake you can make is to not try and understand what in the world would make them think that. As a songwriter, I consider it part of my job to try and help people understand why people would do these crazy things. Maybe we can avoid it next time if we actually saw these things happening again. The historical backdrop of what went into the Oklahoma bombing was more illuminating than the bombing itself."

A similar process led to Rod's writing "My Neighbors in Delray." Like almost everyone else, Rod was shocked and disheartened by the events of 9/11. When he was ready to write about it, he saw that certain questions were not being asked. "I was more interested in the fact that these guys were willing to give their lives for this. I had to ask why would these guys do what they did? These were not silly people. They were deadly serious. I don't believe that they were insane. They were very aware of what they were doing. Why would they be willing to do this? Until we understand this, I don't think we'll make any headway in this war on terrorism. We'll just fire a lot of bullets and kill a lot of people."

Rod continues to maintain a busy performing schedule. He does some touring, laying solo gigs at folk clubs and festivals in North America and Europe ... and he has a busy schedule when he's home in Florida, playing three nights a week at local clubs near his home. One of those nights is a solo gig, while the other two are as a duo with Irish singer Tracy Sands. Rod and Tracy also do some touring together, particularly to Irish music festivals. Rod also fronts Big Brass Bed, a Bob Dylan cover band that plays clubs around South Florida. "It's a lot of fun, I really enjoy it."

For his latest CD, Recognition, Rod returned to New York City to record with his early Folk City bandmates Bernie Shanahan and Mark Dann. It's an eclectic set that, in addition to "My Neighbors in Delray," incudes a strong mix of love songs and social commentary. One of the most interesting of the latter is "The Man Who Dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima," a song that Rod based on an interview he did for Newsweek in 1970 with Thomas Ferrebee, the Enola Gay's bombardier. "I read his obituary when he died a couple of years ago and he didn't seem like the guy I interviewed. So I decided to write my own obit, but I took great pains to keep it in his own words."

Rod MacDonald's life has taken some unusual twists and turns to get where he is today. From forsaking a career in law for the life of an artist, to leaving New York City after so many years for a very different lifestyle in Florida. In the quarter century that has passed since I first encountered Rod and his songs, he has continued to write challenging and ultimately important songs. And I continue to be a big fan.

**********************************

The Heart of ATroubadour
The Soul of A Poet
The Voice of A Virtuoso.

Rod's decision to leave New York in the mid-90s and move to south Florida caused many industry people to question the wisdom of leaving Greenwich Village, and wonder at Rod's career aspirations. Rod didn't move to Florida to retire, but did anticipate a "down-sizing" of his career. Instead Floridians openly welcomed "one of the leading figures from New York City's Greenwich Village Fast Folk movement." Rod quickly became one of south Florida's most popular venue and festival performers, and was hailed by the media for re-igniting an existing, but somewhat stagnant Florida folk music scene. Chronicled by the Palm Beach Post as "singer-songwriter extraorinaire", Rod's 1999 release, "Into the Blue," once again earned him critical acclaim with a collection of songs cleverly blending humor, and a light-hearted reflection of Florida living, with more contemplative commentaries of serious issues, like the 1996 ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades and songs about the environmental history of Florida. His 2003 release, "Recognition", and his 2005 release, "A Tale of Two Americas", both featured politically-charged favorites like "My Neighbors in Delray", which earned a Top Finalist Award in the 2003 USA Songwriting Competition, and "Terror", that sound right at home in concert next to his earlier gems.

Rod and his wife have two young daughters, and he prefers to tour less now than in previous years. Busier than ever, In 2003 and 2004 he collaborated with well known south Florida and formerly New York-based musicians, and formed Big Brass Bed and Cleopatra's Noodle, bands which perform locally. Recently, he has begun working with several musicians in a production capacity in a local studio.

Earlier this year, Rod released "After The War", the culmination of several years hard work by Rod, Mark Dann and producer JP Bowersock, both in the U.S. (Blue Flute Music) and Europe( Brambus Records). With this latest release, Rod has come full circle since the days when he was a "big part of the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich Village clubs" (All Music Guide), matching re-recordings of some of his best loved songs with his newest and most provocative work. Working with an outside producer for the first time - former Ryan Adams and the Cardinals guitarist, JP Bowersock, "After The War" also includes a stellar cast of guest musicians and vocalists, and is a testimony to Rod's artistry as both a singer and a songwriter.

In October 2009, Rod returned for his third year to Florida Atlantic University as an instructor on the history of music. Through its Lifelong Learning Society, Rod conducts 8-week lecture series at several FAU campuses, teaching twice weekly at each location.

Originally started as a series primarily for the history of folk music, it has evolved into a broad spectrum of americana music. "Music Americana: The Great American Songbook" examines the works, biographies and importance of singers and songs of all genres, such as Louis Armstrong, Cole Porter, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan and many others.

Throughout his career, Rod has been inspired and motivated by the people he's met, the places he's visited, and a strong sense of justice, fairness and humanity. Unafraid to take chances and ask tough questions that prompt people to come to their own conclusions, his eclectic brand of contemporary music, showcased in a multi-textured clear tenor, is infectious and inspiring, often humorous, sometimes reckless, frequently evocative, usually thought provoking - and - always compelling.

Known for social and political commentaries on a variety of topics, he is perhaps even more recognized for unforgettable love songs that are often poetic imagery set to music... he is afterall a poet; a modern day troubadour of the people and for the people. Long after the music is done, the melody remains.

He's one of the great ones ..."
- Rod Kennedy, Kerrville FF -

CD & Artist Reviews

Acoustic Live
The Life and Times of ... Rod MacDonald!
by Arthur Wood and Richard Cuccaro

"It would be a good idea to watch one's words and actions carefully when in the company of one Rod MacDonald. The man's nose for truth, tempered by a degree in law and time spent in Washington D.C., abetted by a supersonic bull.... barometer, is daunting. Finding oneself skewered by a poet's wit, in word or in song is not the worst fate, but it might tend to be a little uncomfortable." Read more....