The Cooper-Young Festival, slated for Saturday, September 16th, has named a nationally recognized artist to headline its musical stages this year — though he’s not exactly a household name.
Doug MacLeod doesn’t do arena tours with multiple costume changes, but he’s the real deal, and has been for 40 years. That’s when he made his recording debut on Pee Wee Crayton’s Make Room For Pee Wee, and the guitarist and singer has been celebrated as both a side man and solo performer ever since. And while the award-winning blues man grew up in New York City, it’s only fitting that he now calls Memphis home.
MacLeod’s bio notes that he first studied with a one-eyed country bluesman from Toano, Virginia named Ernest Banks, who also gave him the principles of music and performance that have guided him ever since: “Never play a note you don’t believe” and “Never write or sing about what you don’t know about.”
Unlike many blues artists, MacLeod plays only his own compositions (and he’s written over 300 songs), but his music has also been recorded by many other artists, including Dave Alvin, James Armstrong, Eva Cassidy, Albert Collins, Papa John Creach, Big Lou Johnson, Albert King, Chris Thomas King, Coco Montoya, Billy Lee Riley, Son Seals, Tabby Thomas, and Joe Louis Walker.
Local and international fans of the Blues Music Awards know his name well, and just this May The Blues Foundation announced in its 44th Annual Blues Music Awards that MacLeod was the winner of the 2023 Acoustic Artist Award. Earlier this year, Downbeat also named MacLeod’s 2022 record as an album of the year.
“Doug MacLeod’s A Soul To Claim, like many of his 21 previous albums, makes it clear that he’s an archetype of the top-level blues storyteller: wry, sharp-witted, virile, inclined to poke fun at sentiment,” wrote Frank-John Hadley in Downbeat Magazine. “MacLeod bestows his music with a human intimacy that’s a function of his affable personality and the original material he works with. With natural authority and charisma, he communicates one-on-one with listeners.”
Meanwhile, there will be plenty of other music at this year’s Cooper-Young Festival, as is only fitting for the neighborhood calling itself “Memphis’ largest historically hip neighborhood dating back to 1849.” Here’s the full lineup:
Memphis Grizzlies Stage
12:30 pm Steve Lockwood and Old Dogs
1:30 pm Robots Attack
2:30 pm Switchblade Kid
3:30 pm Avon Park
4:30 pm SKIFF
Guaranty Bank Stage
11:15 am Brian Blake
12:15 pm Mike Hewlett & The Racket
1:15 pm Short in the Sleeve
2:15 pm Raneem Imam
3:15 pm Rowdy & the Strays
4:15 pm Max Kaplan & The Magics
5:15 pm Headliner – Doug MacLeod