Blues singer MacLeod says, ‘It’s all about the girls’

Doug MacLeod picked up a bass guitar as a teenager because girls liked it. When that attention faded, he took to the microphone. Girls liked that even more.

Now that he thinks about it, much of his musical career comes back to the same source. "It's all about the girls," says the blues singer.

MacLeod will perform at the Charleston Heights Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday . "Girls" are welcome.

The St. Louis native was first moved by music at age 13 while sitting in the audience of Fox Theater's R&B shows in Brooklyn. What he felt there resonated enough for him to pursue music on his own, which ultimately changed his life.

MacLeod credits his music for helping him get through an abusive childhood. He says he also owes music for freeing him of his stutter, which would disappear when he sang.

"A psychologist told me music opened up a part of my brain where my voice came out," he says. "When I realized I had a voice that stuttered and a voice that didn't stutter, I said, 'I'll take the voice that doesn't stutter.' "

That was around age 15. He's been singing the blues ever since.

MacLeod says the blues as a genre is misunderstood.

"A lot of people think it's about sadness," he says. "The blues is about overcoming and seeing the goodness in things."

Tracks from his most recent album, "There's a Time," due to drop in March, support his claim. MacLeod doesn't croon about the woman who left him, the rent he can't pay or the job he lost. He chooses themes with more uplifting messages.

"Brand New Eyes" is just one example of that. It's about looking at the world with a different perspective. Most of his songs, in traditional blues-style, come with a story pulled from his own life.

He got the idea for "Brand New Eyes" after an encounter at a CD signing with a fan who stood in line, not to get a CD signed, but to confront MacLeod about his song's themes.

"You sing about love and positivity, and I don't see no love or joy," he fired away at the publicity event. "This world stinks."

The man then walked away. Adding insult to insult, he never bought a CD. But he got MacLeod thinking.

"It dawned on me," he says. "Maybe it's not the world. Maybe it's him. Maybe all he needs to see the goodness is brand new eyes."

His critic may not have bought that CD, but he wound up in a starring role on the next one.

He also injects humor into his work as demonstrated with new songs such as "My In-Laws are Outlaws," "Dubb's Talkin' Religion Blues."

The new album is his first effort with Reference Recordings. He didn't use headphones or anything typical of a studio recording session. Rather, he just played guitar and sang. On some tracks, he was joined by a bass player. On others, bass and drums.

"One thing is for sure," he says. "The music is real. You hear what was played, instead of it being doctored up."

MacLeod, 66, has played acoustic guitar alongside names such as Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Big Mama Thornton and George "Harmonica" Smith.

The advice he's never forgotten, however, came from Ernest Banks, a one-eyed blues singer from Virginia.

"He told me, 'Never play a note you don't believe or sing what you don't know about,' " he recalls.

Some blues artists know about fed up women, past-due rent and unemployment. MacLeod just knows better.

Contact Xazmin Garza at xgarza@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0477. Follow her on Twitter @startswithanx.