Doug MacLeod Break The Chain (2 LP)

Winner of the Blues Music Award 2018 for the acoustic album of the year!

Doug MacLeod continues his exploration of the human condition on his third album with "Prof" Keith O. Johnson for Reference Recordings. Break The Chain contains twelve specially composed, very personal and at the same time universal songs. The title track, written and recorded with his son Jesse, describes the vicious circle of domestic violence and the possibilities of breaking out of it - a topic that affects MacLeod himself. Break The Chain was recorded at Skywalker Studios and put on tape with no overdubs or effects. Because as the singer says: "This is music played by humans for humans. So there's no scrubbin 'with over-dubbin', no fixin 'in the mixin', and no pitch control on the console."

So when a chair is moved or MacLeod takes a deep breath to sing, we are meant to hear it. These are very personal songs, played in a personal atmosphere. He is accompanied by bassist Denny Croy, drummer Jimi Bott and percussionist Oliver Brown.

180-gram or 200-gram pressing - a question that is not that easy.

For identical titles from Reference Recordings, there are covers labeled 180 g containing LPs that weigh around 200 g, and vice versa. This is due to the fact that the commissioned pressing plants QRT and RTI in the USA specify a 10 percent tolerance for weight on the one hand and then occasionally simply get the orders mixed up. In terms of sound, the pressings do not differ.

Fine, frugal blues, played soulfully by the now 72-year-old American with the distinctive, throaty voice, whose guitar playing on the title track and on "One for Tampa Red" reminds of Ry Cooder. - Michael Lang, STEREO, issue 11/2018

"'Professor' Keith Johnson is an audiophile legend. He also recorded the new MacLeod work at Skywalder Sound in California, using every trick in the book." - Lothar Brandt, AUDIO, issue 11/2018

Keith O. Johnson, who is revered as "Prof" by audiophiles, recorded the twelve songs in an emphatically natural way. [...] The lacquer film for the vinyl was cut from the master file using the half-speed process. Doug MacLeod and the band are now also spatially and dynamically perfect. - Winfried Dulisch, Stereoplay, edition 11/2018

The Californian sound engineer legend Keith Johnson has produced a chamber music reference album with this intimate portrait of a singer-songwriter and blues guitarist Doug MacLeod. It also pleases the audiophile who otherwise doesn't like listening to roots music at all. - Winfried Dulisch, hifi & records, issue 1/2019

No pimped up drums, but feather-light rhythm work by drummer Jimi Butt and percussionist Oliver Brown and the buttery, grooving bass by Denny Croy. The focus is clearly on MacLeod, his guitar or Dobro. The great dynamism of the blues, rhythm'n'blues and boogie songs comes mainly from the wonderfully natural mixed voice, which MacLeod's son Jesse joins from time to time as support. - Lothar Brandt, MINT, issue 10/2018

Track-list:

Side 1

1. Goin 'Down to the Roadhouse

2. Mr. Bloozeman

3. Lonesome feeling

Side 2

4. Travel On

5. LA - The Siren in the West

6. One for Tampa Red

Side 3

7. Who's Driving This Bus

8. This Road I'm Walking

9. Church Street Serenade

Side 4

10. Break the chain

11. Going home

12. What the blues means to me