Doc MacLean

Doc is a weathered, wily, but infinitely likable storyteller/performer. Writing from the dark side of the blues highway, Doc’s distinctive vocals and bare fingers National guitar plot an intense, emotional remapping of contemporary Delta blues and roots music. Son of a civil rights lawyer and a fiddle player, MacLean was by his early teens playing harmonica and washboard in coffeehouses and festivals, and was appearing on radio and television variety shows. In 1972 he formed a duo with Colin Linden, (now Grammy nominated producer and recent Dylan guitarist) and became a frequent opener for Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, Muddy Waters, and John Hammond. Famously, they traded a guitar for a 1948 Dodge, and set out to explore America– never looking back. In his early travels Doc met and became friends with many older musicians including Son House, Tampa Red, and Robert Pete Williams. “Who I am, what I do and what I carry, was gifted to me by the grandchildren of slaves,” says MacLean. “I’m a small link in a big, unbroken chain.” Youthful work as an accompanist included tours and performances with Peg Leg Sam the Medicine Show Man, Blind John Davis, Sunnyland Slim, Rev... more...