Duckpond
House Concert No. 17
Rory McLeod
10 April 2014
For the
first house concert of 2014, we were delighted to have in our home our second
international artist, the UK folk legend Rory McLeod. Rory managed to fit
us into his very busy
tour schedule, with considerable help from his tour manager, and previous
Brunswick Music
Festival Director, John McCauslan. John even acted as chauffer for the night,
because Rory had to
catch a plane to Hobart early the next morning - I said his schedule was busy!
As we welcome our first artist for 2014, Autumn is showing its stunning annual
display
while we do our first 'furniture fiasco' for the year.
Rory comes complete with guitar, harmonica, spoons, tap shoes and a voice
which has a remarkable range, and all his songs are accompanied by wonderful
stories,
although you sometimes can't see quite where the story is going until you
get there.
Feet on
his tap board added a percussion accompaniment to many of his songs.
Rory's lyrics are always thought provoking, and there is often a subtle, and
occasionally not so subtle,
political message to his songs. He was also happy to engage with the audience.
Even during the break
between sets, rather than escaping for a while to rest the voice, he was willing
to chat and listen
as people busily bought his CDs
...and if they had any money left over, the audience was invited to
take a look at my 'Leaf Magic' prints and journals which were on display
and available for the first time.
Jonni and
I have been fans of Rory since we first saw him in 2000 at Port Fairy Folk
Festival,
where we saw him four times over the four days of the festival and he didn't
repeat a song once.
We've loved his vast collection of songs and always thought his friendly personality
and brilliant storytelling talent would delight our Duckpond audience. We
were not wrong.
If you'd like to find out more about Rory, or listen to a few of his songs,
go to his website at www.rorymcleod.com/