THE FOLK CLUB OF SOUTH FLORIDA, INC.
Since 1985 traditional, contemporary, roots & alternative music
ACOUSTIC UNDERGROUND CONCERT SERIES presents
ROD MacDONALD
LUNA STAR CAFÉ, SATURDAY, October 4, 2014 – 8:00 P.M.
775 NE 125 Street, North Miami, FL 33161 305-799-7123
Requested Contribution: $10, members of any folk club $8
- ROD MacDONALD
Not many traditions in this part of the woods but it looks like we are creating one here: it’s Fall so Rod MacDonald must be performing for the Folk Club of South Florida at Luna Star Cafe for the twenty-five year old Acoustic Underground Series. So nice. One of the nation’s most talented, creative and beloved folk singers helping the Folk Club fulfill its mission of bringing folk and acoustic music to the public; it’s all good. And, with Rod, you don’t a retread. He is always moving forward, exploring new subject areas, bringing us new insights into our music, our history, ourselves. Here is part of what Rob Weir said in Sing Out about Rod’s latest album: Later That Night is Rod’s fourteenth album and it finds him in well-tuned wit, voice, and melody. He takes down religion’s nasty social uses on “Hole in the Bible” and gives the same treatment to the GOP on his hysterical calypso/reggae/folk mash-up “Young Republicans in Love.” If you wonder if humor can change things, check out MacDonald’s six-minute narrative ballad, “White Flour,” which recounts the 2007 tale of how clowns took down the Ku Klux Klan in Knoxville, Tennessee. MacDonald is no shrinking violet. Although it’s quite different musically from Cheryl Wheeler’s rap “If It Were Up to Me,” MacDonald’s “Joe Public” similarly refuses to excuse working-class louts who cite all manner of excuse and imagined enemies to explain why they act and vote against their own interests. That’s not to say that he’s unsympathetic. Every union hall in American ought to be playing his “Last American Worker,” the best pro-worker song I’ve heard in over a decade. (It was published in Sing Out! v.54 #3, too.) MacDonald names the real enemies, including banks, Wall Street, global capitalism, the health care industry, and greedy shareholders. His refrain, “He’s the last American worker/And they’ve got him dead in their sights/They’ve taken away everything that he worked for/Somebody turn out the lights.”
If you have never experienced a rich and fulfilling evening of the music of Rod MacDonald, make this the night. If you only heard one song, My Friends In Delray, it would be worth the trip. Rod has the dubious honor of living in Delray Beach, FL, the city where some of the Twin Towers terrorists lived; his song is a message to them and to all of us. It is most poignant. But there is much more to Rod’s music and story. He is one of the most famous and beloved folk musicians in the nation. With roots in Greenwich Village, his contemporary Bob Dylan went electric, Rod stayed acoustic and we benefit with a body of work produced by a man educated as an attorney and a journalist who chose to use his keen skills to document and relate our times and our life experiences. And he even teaches about American music at Florida Atlantic University
Read the extraordinary praise for Rod’s three decades of work on his website, not by publicists, but by the most respected artists of our time. His songs touch your heart, your memories, your soul. He will remind you of our history as a nation, of moments in your life and of moments you might have missed. Sing Out Magazine tells us “Beyond politics, he sings of smoking, hurricane survivors, and true love. Fatherhood has spawned the tender “I’m Your Dad” and also, no doubt, “Missing.” Biographical pieces sketch Ray Charles, Ronald Reagan and one called the “Governator.” Slightly resembling Dylan, Rod delivers “I am Bob Dylan” after one too many questioners asked. It’s lively and sarcastic as are several of the tracks here.” Do not miss this rare Miami Dade County appearance of one of our best. “He’s one of the great ones…” Rod Kennedy, Founder of Kerrville Folk Festival; “MacDonald’s place in the folk Hall of Fame is assured by his “A Sailor’s Prayer”… All Music Guide; “A highlight of Friday evening’s show was Rod MacDonald’s set … he has paved the way for many others and has a history that places him with Paxton, Hardy, Hills, Von Ronk and other notables of Folk …” Will McLean Festival; “… a brilliant folk singer and composer. His melodic songs possess words that go straight into your heart and soul.” Year’s Top Ten Atlantic City Press; “One of the best of the singer-songwriters ever to come out of the New York movement.” Dave Van Ronk
http://www.rodmacdonald.net