Forty-five years ago Doc MacLean was playing Charlie Patton songs in Son House's living room. From back porch to big porch. The storyteller. An emotional remapping of contemporary delta blues. At one time Blues Revue Magazine called him the "Prince of Darkness." There's redemption here beyond the simple, acoustic medium– and an appeal that reaches well beyond the Crossroads.Doc MacLean has performed and recorded with a who's who of first and second generation blues, roots and gospel artists such as Sam Chatmon, Peg Leg Sam, and Blind John Davis. Among many others, he has supported Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and BB King. Now best known as a songwriter and storyteller, MacLean has more recently recorded with members of the Canned Heat and Mavis Staples bands.
This real deal, old school troubadour self drives to hundreds of shows every year— sometimes busking the places in between. But America is now seen more often in the rear view mirror...
Over the last few years MacLean has driven over 100 thousand km across South Africa, taking it for his own. Named as one of the top sets at the massive, 2017 OppiKoppi festival, he's now played most of the largest festivals, smallest juke joints, coolest theatres, and best regarded presentation stages in the country. The thing that has been carried is again returned. "No venue too large, too small, too grand or too humble." Even places lost in the folds of the map.
Writing from the dark side of the road, Doc MacLean remains a songster from the delta tradition. A traveler. Gifted by the grandchildren of slaves, MacLean now sings his own stories and tells his own songs in his own voice. His mostly resophonic, finger style slide guitar pays sonic homage to Patton, House, and Big Joe Williams, while moving forward in a roots based, yet contemporary context.
To MacLean, the Blues is not a genre: it is a condition of the human spirit, a healing music, a journey of the soul, a container of past, present, and future. N'ganga.
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Doc MacLean's fourth African tour, "N'ganga Blues," finds him returning to many of the places visited on previous adventures. The "World's Biggest Little Blues Tour" will touch most parts of South Africa, covering over 20 thousand km by land, and will include some 60 shows.
Telling songs and singing stories. This blues came from the Mississippi delta. But before that, it came from Africa. Passed down from mouth to mouth. More than music. A placement of the human spirit. Doc's early mentors were the grandchildren of slaves- and he keeps their gifts close to the heart, and close to the Bone. N'ganga Blues celebrates this relationship and explores this continuing journey.
MacLean now mentors a number of local blues, roots and traditional artists, actively seeking opportunities for them to tour North America and elsewhere. N'ganga Blues will feature occasional, pop-up collaborations with these artists. Around the edges of the tour, MacLean will co-write with Tim Parr and Albert Frost, and will record new album tracks with Frost in the producer's chair. N'ganga Blues: witness a unique and mature artist at the height of his powers.
N'ganga. The healer. This thing we call Blues. I've rolled the bones allover the map. Sixty throws. Sixty shows: they shadow South Africa.No place too large, too small, too grand or too humble. When you roll the bones you could come up snake eyes. Or you could score big.That's what the Old Man used to say.Dust in my blood, I can't escape. Solo, I'm pushing back out into the desert. The Great Karoo is calling: and then the rest of it.
This map shows places with names I can't pronounce. Yeah, yeah, if I can put my finger on it-I'm going there. It's in the sidebar. When we stop for drinks, I'll get it sorted.When I was young, I met them in the American south. Men like Son House, Sam Chatmon, Robert Pete Williams.
As an older man, it should of been no surprise to meet them again, those like them, herein Africa. A full circle. An unbroken chain. Tellers and healers. And now I’m back, surfing the summer heat: buying cheap red and diesel.Life leaking out around the edges. Death wandering aimlessly. At night: it's cool neon and electric wire, both humming in B flat. To Have and Have Not. To breathe in and out.It's healing music, these Blues
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But the Blues is also this journey:close to the wire. The hot wire. A journey through life. This place where all things are possible. Or should be. Where stories hang like dust in the air: drawn to the heart by the rattle of the Bones. N'ganga.
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