Macleod Prefers Touring Alone
Burgeoning Minneapolis singer-songwriter Marlee MacLeod recorded her two albums with rock/country rock bands backing her.
But now, while on the road supporting her new album, “Favorite Ball and Chain,” MacLeod performs alone. She plays El Toreador tonight.
“I prefer it,” MacLeod said in a recent phone interview. “I am not a democracy.”
In other words, she likes to do things her way.
“For some reason, it’s what I started out doing and I just like it better,” she continued. “I’m much more comfortable playing solo.”
Playing solo is also a good way for MacLeod to bring her assured voice and poignant songs to the forefront, instead of having them blurred by a roaring rock band.
MacLeod produced “Favorite Ball and Chain,” a nice progression from her first effort, “Drive Too Fast.”
MacLeod agrees. “It’s a better record,” she said. “I feel like it’s more fully realized according to what I wanted it to sound like.”
On the album, MacLeod doesn’t employ the country accents so prominent in “Drive Too Fast,” although two musicians who played on that album, John Crist and Rob Veal, belong to Athens, Ga., country rock unit Dashboard Saviors.
While she was living in Athens, the Dashboard Saviors gave MacLeod a major career push that led her to sign with the seminal Minneapolis label Twin-Tone/ Medium Cool.
MacLeod is undoubtedly one of the country’s most promising and underrated talents. Her show tonight is not to be missed. There’s no cover. Music starts at 8 p.m.
Saturday, El Toreador has Dan Bosch and Pamela Van Kirk on stage.
Elsewhere in the night
The rock band Slaughter has postponed its concert tonight at the Cotton Club in Hayden. The band will reschedule sometime in September. Ticketholders are asked to keep their tickets. For more information, call (208) 762-9912.
Moscow rock trio Royball plays Outback Jack’s tonight along with Spokane’s Spring Grove Experiment and Junk Box.
Royball has a new album out called “Barometric.” It’s available at Spokane record stores. Music starts at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $3.