POP MUSIC REVIEW : MacLeod’s Good-Time Blues

With his pipe and distinguished shock of hair, singer-guitarist-songwriter Doug MacLeod looks more the college professor. But on the bandstand, he’s full of bent notes, emotive chording and stories of women gone or on their way out the door. That’s right; he’s a blues artist.

The Doug MacLeod Band, whose regular Monday night set at Reuben’s in Redondo Beach was included as part of the weeklong Benson & Hedges Blues festival, played good-time music spiced with R&B; rhythms, the kind of blues designed to make you forget about your problems, not wallow in them. It’s danceable stuff, as more than a few couples proved on the room’s tiny dance floor. And though it may not have been as crisply performed as one would like, it was the perfect musical accompaniment to the crowded bar scene at Reuben’s.

McLeod, whose songs have been picked up by Albert King and Albert Collins, makes a point of the fact that all the tunes he performs are originals. After introducing the bartenders, he opened with “As You Grease, So Shall You Slide,” a driving instrumental featuring a witty guitar solo that recalled some of Eric Clapton’s uptempo work.

His intro to the slow lament “One Step From the Blues” hinted at B. B. King, someone the guitarist cites as an influence. But MacLeod’s guitar work is denser than King’s, and he’s not above some George Benson-like chording when the mood strikes him. He even dropped a line or two of “Willow Weep for Me” during his “One Step” solo.

MacLeod’s rather limited vocal range didn’t stop him from getting his point across. The singer’s voice was best used during long, spoken introductions to his tunes, using the kind of patter that Barry White might admire, while the band worked up a groove behind him.

He was competently backed by drummer Lee Spath, keyboardist Steve Gold, who added appropriately clinky-sounding piano to a Cajun-influenced number called “Do-La,” and drummer Eric Ajaye, whose plucky solo during “54th and Vermont” (the title track from MacLeod’s latest recording on the European Line/Stomp label) had the crowd on its feet.

The Doug MacLeod Band appears at Reuben’s on an ongoing basis Sundays through Tuesdays.