Discography

Among the stalwarts of the roots music zeitgeist over the last fifty years, many are referred to as ‘legends’ . Some don’t deserve the title. Rory McLeod has always been so adeptly musical while experimenting in in various media, yet remaining somehow familiar and unpretentious, that his bold political or emotional songs go directly from heart to heart . Thereby he derives his status without the need to brandish his credentials or appear in dubious retrospective summaries of the era. Tow Lines is typical of the way he works. Over half of the new songs are taken from a musical theatre show, ‘The Grit Of Life’ - which follows the journey of a canal boat theatre called the Widgeon, an old grit carrier which toured in 2021. It thus embodies his entire societal stance without need of critical analysis or interpretation. Simply put, I don’t say that someone so prolific and deliberately colloquial at times, always writes profoundly great songs. Why should he? The effortless variation and differing commitment between say, ‘Clap The Capitalists’ and ‘You Don’t Know Her Like I Do’ are why McLeod is compulsive. He doesn’t need to preach, exaggerate, or repeatedly use gait prop vocabulary. Authentic legends don’t.