Similar Artists:
Buddy MacMaster,
Natalie MacMaster,
Margo Hennebach,
Richard Meyer,
David Massengill,
Fast Folk Musical Magazine
Influenced By:
Performed Songs By:
- Born: 1949
- Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Folk
- Instrument: Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar
- Representative Albums: "White Buffalo," "Live at the Speakeasy 1983-85," "Lee Harvey & the Microdots"
- Representative Songs: "Coming of the Snow," "Song of My Brothers," "The Man on the Ledge"
Biography
Singer-songwriter Rod MacDonald was a big part of the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich Village clubs. After graduating from Columbia Law School and joining the staff of Newsweek, MacDonald elected to become a folk singer in the 1970s. Via the Fast Folk Music Cooperative, MacDonald and others like Richard Meyer, Christine Lavin and Michael Jerling were an important part of the rebirth of the folk scene in New York in the 1980s. While MacDonald isn't exactly a new face to New York folk music fans, he began to gain national stature in the early 1990s, performing at folk festivals and coffeehouses around the U.S., Canada and Europe.MacDonald's songwriting influences include Phil Ochs, Richard Farina and Bob Dylan. True to the folk tradition, MacDonald is not afraid to get political, take chances and perhaps shock some people. Songs like "American Jerusalem," "White Buffalo" and "Every Living Thing" have been covered by his peers and his elders, including musicians Garnet Rogers, Jean Redpath, Gordon Bok, Happy Traum and Shawn Colvin. 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.
MacDonald has two albums out on Shanachie Records, 1992's Highway to Nowhere and a 1994 release, The Man On the Ledge. 1999's Into the Blue appeared on Gadfly; his other releases include No Commercial Traffic (1983, Cinemagic) and White Buffalo (1987, McDisk/Mt. RR/Brambus). MacDonald has based himself in Florida since the mid-1990s. ~ Richard Skelly, All Music Guide
