A Rory McLeod FAQ (he's opening for Ani D this Nov.)
RBRinfo
The following Rory McLeod FAQ was forwarded to us at Righteous Babe Records
(Ani DiFranco's label) from our pals at Cooking Vinyl (Ani and Rory's UK
distributor). It's a whopper, but I'm passing it on for your enjoyment. (I'm a
new Rory fan meself, I am.)
-Ron E.
RBR Minister of Communications
_____________
RORY MCLEOD SUPPORTING ANI DIFRANCO
05/06-Nov Los Angeles CA Mayan Theater
07-Nov San Diego CA Spreckles Theatre
08-Nov Las Vegas NV The Joint
10-Nov Tempe AZ Club Rio
11-Nov Tucson AZ Centennial Hall
12-Nov Albuquerque NM Hyland Theatre
14-Nov Austin TX Texas Union Ballroom
15-Nov Houston TX Cullen Performance Hall
16-Nov Dallas TX Deep Ellum Live
17-Nov New Orleans House Of Blues
If you are going to any of the Ani shows above, make sure to get there
early to check out the ace support provided by one-man-band Rory McLeod.
Rory, who is Ani’s label mate in Europe (they are both on Cooking Vinyl),
has played with Ani on several occasions. He was also a guest musician on
Ani’s Puddle Dive album, playing harmonica on “Names And Dates And Times”,
“Egos Like Hairdos” and “God’s Country”.
1. Rory Mc Leod Biography
2. Rory McLeod Interview
3. Rory McLeod on Ani DiFranco and her album Dilate
4. Rory McLeod Discography
5. Review of Rory McLeod’s latest album
6. How To Order Rory McLeod CD’s
7. Rory McLeod’s Mailing List And Comments
1. Rory Mc Leod Biography
Rory McLeod, ex-circus clown and fire-eater, is a one-man soul-band, poet
and storyteller singing his own unique, upbeat dance-stories. A modern
traveling troubadour using feet-tap shoes, accapella-voice, harmonica,
guitar, trombone, bottleneck, spoons, finger-cymbals, bandorea,
djembe-drum, various percussion.
A self taught musical gypsy, Rory has traveled for different reasons at
different times into Asia, Middle East, Gambia, Spain, France,
Basque-Country, Denmark, Holland, Finland, Norway Germany, Ireland,
Australia and many other corners of the world. Rory has even busked in
China's Yunnan province and danced with local tribal musicians and singers,
orally exchanging music, laughter and dances in parks and drawing crowds of
curious onlookers.
Over the past 12 years, Rory has played with Ani DiFranco, Ali Farke Toure,
Taj Mahal, Flaco Jiminez, Michelle Shocked, Katherine Tickell and many
more.
He has won the Texas Harmonica Championship 1981 (Won Harmonica Blow Off
competition in Texas at the Kerrville Festival. Was invited to Judge it the
following year) and the 'Street Busker of the Year' Award 1985 at the
Edinburgh Festival.
In 1980 Rory worked as a fire eater, a clown and laborer in a small
Aztec-family-Mexican circus. The circus toured small farming villages and
tobacco plantations down the Pacific coast and mountain pueblos of Jalisco,
Guerrero and South towards Mexico City. He has worked as a laborer,
gardener, on farms, in kitchens, cooking, cleaner, bike repairs,
baby-sitting etc.
Rory has written songs and music for a BBC radio documentary - an oral
history project about East London's 400 year old Spitalfields fruit and
vegetable market.
"I want my songs to keep memory alive, I'm trying to tell history from
working people’s point of view."
In the UK Rory has been active in local community groups, played for Miners
on picket lines and at NUM fund-raisers, ANC, CND and Greenpeace benefits,
as well as supporting the Campaign against Psychiatric Oppression (CAPO)
and the opposition to the Asylum Bill.
Rory’s songs are catchy, poignant, celebrational, observant, incisive,
witty, and passionate songs about all kinds of people - richly colored
characters, i.e. his grandma, mum, (subjects taboo for the 'hip'
generation) and about school friends, family, parting, traveling, love,
despair and politics.
He delivers his songs with such incredible verve and warmth, without
resorting to sloganeering and clichés, but generating remarkable energy and
depth to fill your soul.
His melodies are peppered with Flamenco, Rhumba, Blues, Celtic and Calypso
Rhythms, even a Waltz and Polka. Each song is very different from the next
but each song is stamped with his own style.
"I think of all music as being folk music....Jazz is Afro-American folk
music, Reggae is Jamaican folk music, punk.... it's all 'live' music as I
see it or hear it. It's music about people for people."
Rory has recently written songs and music commissioned by Shiftwork, a
Scottish dance and circus theater based company devising a psycho-comedy
theater-show based on a traditional puppet play called Punch And Judy.
2. Rory McLeod Interview
You used to work as a fire-eater. Any advice for aspiring fire eaters?
Rory:
“1. Check the direction of the wind!
2. Shave.
Main hazard is petrol; it’s toxic containing lead and you can get cancer of
the mouth and stomach if you eat too much. This is why I gave up. I also
gave up because of siphoning petrol tanks on the circus truck - I’d swallow
a little.”
You won the 'Street Busker of the Year' Award 1985 at the Edinburgh
Festival and have even busked in China's Yunnan province and danced with
local tribal musicians and singers, orally exchanging music, laughter and
dances in parks and drawing crowds of curious onlookers. What’s the
advantage of busking compared to playing gigs?
Rory:
“You don’t have to organize too much unless busking with friends - you can
just show up when you like; sunny weather is best, outside preferably
subways. Not too smoky. Also you are playing for folks who wouldn’t
normally come to a gig and hear you.”
You have played harmonica on three tracks of Ani DiFranco’s album Puddle
Dive. What was it like to work with Ani in the studio?
Rory:
“Ani wasn’t actually there - she had already recorded herself. Just her
manager and producer was there. I had played along with her live at a
couple of Canadian festivals two years before.”
You have also run a couple of workshops for SHAPE working with disabled
patients in hospitals and psychiatric wards using music. What did this
involve?
Rory:
“Getting folks with disabilities to listen to each other. If they couldn’t
move anything but a tiny finger, they could conduct music with their
tiniest finger. Also with a harmonica rack round their neck they could
suck and blow a rhythm - good for strengthening breathing capacity.”
In December 1996 you supported Dodgy and also played with them on-stage.
How did the Dodgy gig come about?
Rory:
“At the harvest fayre a scheduled band did not want to play - the weather
was rainy and muddy. I was asked to play in their place. After my set I
went backstage to the drink tent. Someone was playing a guitar and
singing; I took a harmonica and joined in. They enjoyed it and asked me to
come up and play on that song, they were on stage next. So I did. They
were called Dodgy. I didn’t know who they were - they only knew my name
was Rory. I disappeared after playing. They traced me somehow through the
Musicians Union and asked me to play a couple of dates with them later that
year.”
3. Rory McLeod on Ani and her album Dilate:
“I always look forward to seeing Ani. We met each other at a festival, in
a hotel pub session some years ago. A bright spark she is. .... [One of
the things] I like about her [is the way] she almost whips her guitar to a
splinter on stage. ...[On DILATE] Ani is singing intense, uncompromising
soul songs, angry and bitter, about the masks and disguises we wear and the
egos we project. She’s singing about all of us lovers, at each other’s
mercy, stripped of our power by somebody’s “love” (but Ani doesn’t use
words like “love”). Ani sings about these feelings with a dangerous heart.
“Untouchable Face” [for instance] is a song of resentment, and acceptance,
the confused longing of a heart running away from pain, but ever expressing
defiance she survives with a dark, ironic humor. ...”
4. Rory McLeod Discography
“Angry Love” (COOK CD 051)
Tracks: 9
Length: 41 mins 34 secs
Price code: G
Formats: CD only
First released: 1985
“Kicking The Sawdust” (COOK CD 067)
Tracks: 21 (Double CD)
Length: 1 hour 35 mins 48 secs
Price code: G
Formats: CD only
First released: 1986
“Footsteps and Heartbeats” (COOK CD 018)
Tracks: 9
Length: 40 mins 26 secs
Price code: D
Formats: CD only
First released: 1989
“Travelling Home” (COOK CD 048)
Tracks: 13
Length: 68 mins 11 secs
Price code: G
Formats: CD only
First released: 1992
“Lullabies For Big Babies” (COOK CD 125)
Tracks: 16
Length: 72 mins 14 secs
Price code: J
Formats: CD only
First released: 1997
Also, you can find Rory’s track “How Can You Keep On Moving” (not available
on any of his albums) on the Cooking Vinyl compilation “The Disagreement Of
The People” (COOK CD 088), a collection of 17 artists against the Criminal
(In)Justice Act. The CD is price code D, with proceeds going to Liberty.
Other artists featured are Billy Bragg (an exclusive cover version of “This
Land Is Your Land”), Chumbawamba, Back To The Planet, The Pogues and many
others.
5. Review of Rory McLeod’s latest album
RORY MCLEOD
“LULLABIES FOR BIG BABIES”
COOK CD 125
Tracks: 16
Length: 72 mins 14 secs
Price code: J
Formats: CD only
Release date: 23 June 1997
Rory McLeod has enjoyed a career more unusual than most. He’s a
self-taught, one-man show, who spent 12 years of his life traveling the
five continents, while weaving music, storytelling, and an orchestra of
various instruments into his act. From an artist who is undeniably unique,
Cooking Vinyl is proud to present his latest offering, Lullabies for Big
Babies.
Rory plays a variety of instruments on the album, including trombone,
harmonica, spoons, and bandorea, as well as being a dab hand at an
eclectic range of guitar playing. A master of a wildly versatile vocal
style, he grabs you with his rough Cockney accent, and throughout the album
makes use of melodies which draw upon a wide range of influences, from
flamenco to blues, through to Celtic and calypso strains.
The opening track, ‘Be My Rambling Woman,’ incorporates some nifty trombone
and harmonica playing, creating a lively, upbeat feel. This sets the tone
for the following tracks, which on the whole have a happy go-lucky,
optimistic ring to them. No doubt the converted will already be familiar
with the Cockney calypso sound that peppers many of the songs on the album.
‘A Foreigner Forever,’ for example, is based around such a rhythm, giving
it a distinctly tropical feel, while the clarinet-like sound featured on
‘Tea Martoonies’ produces an interesting, quirky effect. In fact, it’s not
until track 9, ‘Looking For You,’ a soulful track with harmonica
accompaniment, that the mood becomes a little sombre, before Rory explores
the idea of past acquaintances in the instrumental ‘Long Lost Friend.’
Sombre in some parts, this is not, however, an album lacking in humor.
‘My Two Feet Carry Me Home,’ a song delivered in an endearing ‘music hall’
style, is sure to remind listeners of the staggering walk home after last
orders at the pub, and seems an appropriate way of winding things up. Oh
yes, this album reels from sobriety to drunkenness in one fell swoop!!!
Given that Rory has led such a varied and colorful life, it’s not
surprising that the storytelling lyrics and musical genres featured on
Lullabies are also rather vivid. If the role of a good storyteller is to
captivate and transport an audience, then Rory is definitely a natural.
His music has a delightful home-made feel to it, and with this album, Rory
has carved a special niche for himself in the modern folk music scene.
6. How To order Rory McLeod CD’s
Rory’s CD’s Angry Love and Lullabies For Big Babies have been released in
the US through Cooking Vinyl America L.P. The full back catalogue is
available through Cooking Vinyl in the UK. You may order directly from us.
Cooking Vinyl
P.O. Box 1845
London W10 4BT
England
Or for credit card orders contact the Cooking Vinyl mail order department
by fax: + 44 181 960 1120
phone: +44 181 960 6000
or e-mail: cookin...@compuserve.com
If possible please pay by credit card (Visa / Access / Electron / JCB --
sorry, no American Express)
We will need your card number and expiry date, and cardholder’s name and
address (if different from shipping address)
You may also pay by cheque (drawn on a UK bank account), international
postal order, international money order or cash (please send by registered
/ recorded post).
All cheques must be payable to Cooking Vinyl Ltd. All prices are in
British Pounds Sterling. No foreign currencies please.
Please make sure to include your full name, address and zip code.
Shipping rates to the US: £1.85 for the first CD, plus £0.45 for each
additional one.
There are price codes listed with all albums in the discography. Below is
a decoder:
D: £6 (non-members of the Cooking Vinyl Club) / £4 (Cooking Vinyl Club
members)
G: £10 (non-members of the Cooking Vinyl Club) / £7 (Cooking Vinyl Club
members)
J: £14.50 (non-members of the Cooking Vinyl Club) / £9.50 (Cooking Vinyl
Club members)
You may also be interested in joining our Cooking Vinyl Club to receive a
wide range of benefits, including discounted CD prices.
Club membership costs £10 per year. It entitles you to massive discounts
of approximately to 33 % on all Cooking Vinyl releases bought through mail
order. There are no obligations to buy any minimum number of CD’s during
your membership, which you have the option of renewing after one year.
Approximately every three months you will receive our newsletters and gig
guides. You’ll be informed about any sales and special offers we have. As
a member you can receive free promo photos on request - just send a stamped
self-addressed A4 envelope (or international reply coupons) and state which
artist you are interested in. Also, we release at least one sampler every
year which will give you a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with
all our artists - as a member you’ll get these CD’s that usually contain
around 16 tracks absolutely free.
7. Rory McLeod’s Mailing List
To join Rory’s mailing list (maintained by Cooking Vinyl) e-mail your name
and address to Ilka at <cookin...@compuserve.com>. Also, if you have
any questions on Rory and Cooking Vinyl, e-mail us. If you’ve seen Rory at
any of Ani’s shows, let us know what you think.
Steve Austin
On 30 Oct 1997 00:11:04 GMT, RBRinfo <rbr...@aol.com> wrote:
>The following Rory McLeod FAQ was forwarded to us at Righteous Babe Records
I've been a fan of Rory's since Angry Love, but I never got to see him
play live when I lived in the UK. Earlier this year I heard that he was
going to play at the Ship Inn, in St John's, Newfoundland, where I now
live. I went. Rory was outstanding, exceeding even my expectations. And
what a nice bloke! Thanks for a great evening, Rory.
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